Ryanair welcomes ESRI call for competing Terminals at Dublin Airport
22-Oct-2010 Ryanair, today (Fri 22nd Oct), welcomed the calls from the ESRI for ‘the introduction of terminal competition at Dublin Airport’, where the two terminals are sold off to different competing owners, in a move that would mirror the UK ruling that the BAA monopoly of London’s airports should be broken up to promote competition and a better deal for passengers.
Ryanair today called on the Irish Government, which designed the dysfunctional DAA monopoly and the failed CAR regulatory regime to copy the now discredited UK model, to follow the recommendation of the ESRI and the UK Competition Commission, sell off the two terminals at Dublin Airport to allow competition and break-up the DAA airport monopoly.
Ryanair today called upon the Government to return to Seamus Brennan's original plan to break-up the DAA airport monopoly by:
1. Selling off Shannon Airport to the highest bidder.
2. Selling off Cork Airport to the highest bidder.
3. Selling off Terminals 1 and 2 at Dublin Airport to competing operators (leaving the DAA to run only the shared services of runways, ramps and carparks).
4. Selling off all non core DAA assets including Dublin Airport City and Aer Rianta International.
Ryanair believes that these sales will enable the Government to pay off most, if not all, of the DAA's ruinous €1.2bn debt, while allowing two competing terminals at Dublin to rapidly lower access costs and improve passenger services at Dublin Airport, as well as bringing new and vibrant management to Cork and Shannon airports.
Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said:
"Ireland now has the most expensive airports in Europe and a tourism industry facing two years of record traffic declines. The solution to the dysfunctional monopoly ownership of Ireland's Airports was provided by Seamus Brennan's policy that would have delivered competition to Irish Airports. This policy is now echoed by the ESRI and the Competition Commission in the UK. We must break up the DAA monopoly, and allow competition between airports and between terminals to deliver lower costs and better passenger service, as the DAA monopoly has failed miserably in recent years. It's time that the Irish Government stopped protecting a failed semi-state monopoly like the DAA and allowed competition to succeed where the DAA monopoly and an ineffective quango like the CAR have failed miserably."