How too much hot air led to a terminal decline at the airport

MARY KENNY - Irish Independent 16 Oct 2006

THERE has been much discussion, quite rightly, about Ryanair's bid to take over Aer Lingus.

The nub of the matter is competition. Most people now recognise that competition is a vital principle in business, and whatever else happens in this sphere, fair competition must be maintained.

Competition not only keeps prices down for the consumer: it also deters the arrogance of power which all monopolies, if left unchecked, inevitably develop.

Whether it be banks, businesses, bureaucracies, trade unions, travel, social work, academia, even religions and the arts - all monopolies are eventually subject to Lord Acton's immortal aphorism: "All power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Objections

But if competition must be upheld in the skies - especially over the most profitable routes - it seems to me the principle should also be maintained on the ground.

In short, the Irish capital desperately needs a second airport to compete with Dublin Airport itself (once called Collinstown, as older readers may recall).

Dublin is one of the few capital cities in Europe with only one airport; almost any other capital city has access to at least two.

Belfast, a provincial city, has two airports - Belfast International and the George Best City Airport - and very useful they are, not only giving the consumer a degree of choice, but also dispersing air and road traffic around the city constellation.

Yet, far from envisaging a second airport for the Dublin area, current projections all focused on extending and expanding the only Dublin Airport indefinitely, with more terminals planned for the immediately future, and a second parallel runway which has been a matter of a public hearing by An Bord Pleanala, which came to a close last Thursday.

Many people - particularly residents and local councillors in north Co Dublin - have objected to the plans for this major new runway, making excellent points about the amount of congestion and pollution around Portmarnock, St Margaret's, Santry, Swords and Malahide.

The inspector now retires to consider the verdict - but it is noted An Bord Pleanala seldom goes against what is deemed to be "government policy" and the expansion and extension of Dublin Airport is, it seems, "government policy".

My own concerns about the infinite expansion of Dublin Airport are the result of being a very regular user of the place.

It distresses the kindly people at Dublin Airport Authority when I say I dread the experience of passing through Dublin Airport: they claim they are doing their best to improve conditions.

That may be so, but the fact remains over 20m people will have gone through Dublin Airport in 2006, and it is simply too many for the infrastructure around it. Too many, full stop.

Improvement and extension of facilities may be a laudable part of the airport's ongoing development: but how much more traffic can the M50 take? There has to be a limit.

It is envisaged within a decade there could be 60m passengers being "processed through" Dublin Airport the equivalent of the entire population of Great Britain. Too much.

It's so obvious what Dublin needs is a second airport, both because of the huge growth in airline business, and for the vital principle of competition.

And there are locations where a second airport could quite easily be built.Baldonnel could be extended to cope with a commercial passenger terminal but even if that was ruled out for reasons of defence and national security, there are highly suitable locations around the eastern midlands of Portarlington, where former bogland has been deemed suitable for airport development.

So why isn't it happening? If a Mayo priest could construct a brilliant little airport on prayers and pennies - why shouldn't some entrepreneur build a Dublin West airport to rival and compliment what we once called Collinstown?

It only needs the imagination and vision to do it.

And, perhaps, the political energy to take on the complex economic issues which no doubt lurk behind the value of land around the north Co Dublin.

For my London-Dublin flights, I have a choice of London airports: I can use Gatwick, Stansted or London City Airport (the other two - Heathrow and Luton are not practical from my base).

If I want a cheap Ryanair flight, I use Gatwick; if I want to upgrade a bit, I have taken to flying by Air France from London City, which offers the comforts of a smaller airport.

Alas, on the Irish side, I have no such choice - I must just grit my teeth and use Dublin Airport, giving myself three thousand days of Purgatory each time.

But it shouldn't be like that. Competition should furnish me with a choice in Dublin, as it would in Belfast, or Oslo, or Amsterdam. That is as important a matter as who, eventually, gets to run Aer Lingus