*Photograph: Joe Buckley
ALLOWING DUBLIN Airport to lift its passenger cap by 8 million would be “illogical,” a Clare councillor has stated.
On Friday, Fingal County Council received long-awaited planning application from DAA to build a suite of 11 infrastructure projects at Dublin Airport and the surrounding area and increase passenger capacity from 32 million to 40 million passengers per annum.
This application to increase passenger capacity at Dublin Airport has been criticised for ignoring Ireland’s national planning framework and strengthens the need for a review of the country’s aviation policy.
Families who have unexpectedly found themselves living under a new flight path following the opening of Dublin Airport’s north runway last year are calling for the Government to intervene and force the operator of Dublin Airport to change its air routes. The new €320m north runway at Dublin Airport opened on 24 August last year.
In a proposal before this month’s sitting of Clare County Council, Cllr Pat McMahon (FF) asked that “Clare County Council calls on the Minister for Transport to ensure that the DAA doesn’t use its ownership of Cork Airport to disadvantage Shannon in the distribution of excess traffic arising from restrictions on night flights to Dublin”.
He stated, “changes to the board have helped Shannon in a huge way”. The plans of the daa to give night flights from Dublin to Cork were described as “really annoying” by Cllr McMahon. He added, “The silence in our opposition and from our own TDs from Clare and Limerick was deafening and really surprising, when you think of our Cabinet, its membership, we have high-profile ministers in Cork, one in Kerry, one in Donegal, none in Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Galway, Mayo or Leitrim which shows the attitude of our Government whether we like it or not”.
Newmarket-on-Fergus based McMahon continued, “Why could a humble councillor be bringing this up but I’m trying to defend Shannon and make it equal to any other area”. He continued, “For the first time ever in my experience, we have the support of the people from the Dublin hinterland using our Airport. I would hope that we can increase services seven days a week in Shannon Airport”.
Dublin Airport’s plans to seek an increased passenger capacity of 8 million were referenced by Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF). She said, “they want to have capacity for 40m. It seems illogical as a nation that we would allow for this imbalance”.
Seconding the proposal, Cllr Pat O’Gorman (FF) said “changing the flight paths is upsetting the whole place that they are flying over. All we’ve looked for is to change aviation policy, we’re not looking for half the flights that are coming into Dublin, we’re only looking for five to seven percent of the flights to come into Shannon that are going to Dublin, the only way that can change I’m led to believe is by altering the National Aviation Policy”.
O’Gorman was critical that bus services are now going directly from Ennis to Dublin Airport but not to Shannon Airport, “call it whatever colour bus you want, you can get the bus whether it is green or blue from Ennis all the way to Dublin Airport but not into Shannon”.
Clare County Council need to be making a submission on the national aviation policy, Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) maintained, “requesting a binding requirement to increase traffic through our regional airports”.
Shannon representative, Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) stated, “It is a small percentage that we are looking for and it is the Airport that has won awards for being so welcoming and such a fast recovery from COVID. It is so easy is the feedback from people outside so it does need more flights”.
Regional airports need to get fair equality in any aviation strategy, Cllr Pat Daly (FF) commented. “Shannon should not be deprived of getting extra flights from Dublin. Dublin is a nightmare and I’ve seen it first-hand”. “We need to look at the tourism element to ensure people flying into Shannon are staying an extra night or two in the county,” Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) remarked.
How Schiphol redistributed the aviation in Holland was referenced by Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) while further support was voiced by Cllr Joe Cooney (FG).
