Minister urged to ease ‘crazy’ runway restrictions

Dublin Chamber has called on Transport Minister Shane Ross to act with urgency to ease the restrictive planning conditions attached to the new runway at Dublin Airport.

The business organisation said it is extremely concerned by comments from incoming daa chairman, Basil Geoghegan, that the airport could lose up to three million passengers in one year if planning conditions attached to the new third runway are not reversed.

The chamber believes that Ireland risks losing jobs and investment unless “harsh” restrictions on future flight movements at Dublin Airport are lifted.

Dublin Chamber CEO, Mary Rose Burke, said: “Ireland is shooting itself in the foot at the very moment when global connectivity is most critical. With Brexit approaching, Ireland should be doing all it can to further its credentials as a transatlantic aviation hub with direct connections all over the world.

“Dublin Airport is experiencing phenomenal growth and the opportunities are there for the current progress to continue in the short-term, but the delivery of expanded capacity at the airport is crucial to this.”

She claimed that the planning conditions attached to the proposed third runway threaten to undermine our national airport.

Ms Burke added: “The planned North Runway is needed to allow Dublin Airport to accommodate larger aircraft servicing long-haul routes. But noise restrictions will restrict night-time (11pm-7am) flights to 65 for the entire airport, which is actually down from around 100 today.

“This will result in lower capacity on multiple runways at certain times than we currently have. These conditions make no sense and they need to be reversed if our national airport is to meet growing passenger demand and if Ireland is to take advantage of the opportunities that are comings its way.

“The whole point of the North Runway project is to enhance Dublin Airport’s offering. But we are potentially looking at a crazy situation in which we have a new state-of-the-art runway, but fewer flights and less connectivity. The Transport Minister must intervene with urgency to resolve the situation.”