Firstly, Tom, can I reassure you that this is not a Dublin only group. It just happens that as a Dub myself (albeit one living in Jersey), I have focused on these areas. I'm delighted to see ORK developing as well as it has and would certainly hope that any new bilateral agreement will provide for t/a flights from there; delighted also to hear that Malev and one of two other European flag carriers are tipped to fly to ORK.
With regard to EK, there's been a lot of talk about this on various sites, such as the DUB Airport forum and Airliners.net. Clearly, getting EK in would be a huge boost. I've been on to them several types (and have recently been in contact again), but it needs to come from a higher level. The thing that annoys me is that the govt is perfectly happy to spend a large amount sending delegations to China, Japan, ASEAN etc. (all of which I encourage strongly), but it doesn't make the link between developing trade links and transport. If we're to achieve our goals in these regions, we can't be dependant on LHR, AMS, FRA etc. We need direct access; some have challenged my view on this, saying that this isn't the govt's job, BUT I would argue that the govt's role is to co-ordinate the efforts of state and private industry groups and (as it did with SQ) approach airlines, using all necessary means to reel one of them in. It's not just me saying this, incidentally; only today, PWC (that's PriceWaterhouseCoopers, not Pratt & Whitney Canada!) said that economic growth could fall next year, because of the competitiveness of our exports; we can do something about this - aviation can be the answer, IF IT'S ALLOWED TO BE.
Of course, we don't do ourselves any favours on the infrastructure side and this is a key reason why we're pushing hard to get the current DUB runway extended. It's now (as you know!) 8,650'. The new runway won't be open until at least 2011, possibly 2012. That's seven years that we're stuck with a runway which WILL NOT ALLOW large freighters with full loads, which severely restricts existing twins and which will also prevent the effect we should be getting from having two competing terminal operators.
This is why we need focus and action. Think of how effective Irish aviation policy could be if the govt had the same attitude as it has towards the Northern Ireland issue; it's focused on a goal, it understands the importance and despite the current problems, it is disciplined, focused and committed to that goal, as are all civil servants involved. I mention this because it's often easy to kick the civil servants, but the real reason for their lethargy is the lack of direction from above; this needs to be a politically driven issue and we need to get this.
If nothing else (and I'm hoping for a lot more!), we should get a firm statement of the govt's understanding of the importance of aviation, plus a commitment to doing what needs to be done to achieve this. However, such is the lack of confidence that a lot more than words is necessary.