Airport car park no longer able to accept bookings

Quick Park, the privately-operated car park near Dublin airport, has closed its advance bookings "until further notice" because of the volume of traffic at the airport.

Reaching capacity gives Quick Park, which operates 3,500 spaces, an income of €17,500 a day, and more than that if customers pay by the hour.

The figure is however a long way short of the €230,400 a day which could potentially be earned by Quick Park's neighbour, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).

Quick Park operator John O'Sullivan, who founded the private bus company Aircoach, said there was little he could do about traffic volumes, although Quick Park would endeavour to serve customers.

A notice on the company website said the car park would be opening "at intervals" as spaces become available, and it could only advise intending customers to phone on their way to the airport to check availability.

"I suppose it's a barometer of the level of activity at the airport nowadays," said Mr O'Sullivan. He added Easter was particularly busy and it was likely summer would also be hectic. He said various options were being explored to find extra space, but there was little that could be done in the short term.

The car park, on land owned by developer Gerry Gannon, charges €1 per hour or €5 a day. Quick Park said it had about 3,500 spaces.

In contrast the airport authority said it had no capacity problems. It operates 14,400 long-term spaces at €8.50 per day, giving its long-term car park a potential daily income of €122,400.

The airport authority's short- term car park has a capacity of 3,600 spaces, with a charge of €3 per hour up to a maximum daily charge of €30, giving a potential income of €108,000.

This could increase significantly at peak times, however, if cars paid for up to 10 hours and were then replaced by another car, giving a maximum potential of €60 per space in a 24-hour period.

Taking €108,000 for the short- term car park and €122,400 for its long-term park, the DAA has a potential earning figure of €230,400 a day, or €1,612,800 per week. This works out at €83,865,600 a year.

The airport authority said last night it was upgrading its car parks and would bring another 3,000 spaces on stream in July, in time for the peak season.