irish laddie no offence, but its that kind of short-term thinking thats held back so much of Ireland's infrastructure. Your arguement that a longer runway can't be justified because it would only attract 1,000 new PAX a week but would have to be paid for by the other 40-50k PAX is ridiculous. Going by that logic, why even bother expanding any of the country's transport infrastructure?
Like Just a Spotter says, we need a longer runway, and if this Air India rumour results in anything, it should be to highlight just how much Dublin's short runway is holding it back from securing new long-haul flights to the likes of Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Dublin Airport has the potential with this new terminal and CBP facility to become a big European hub for connections, but that will never happen unless the current runway is extended. If anything we'd actually lose more money by not extending it given how much has been invested in the new terminal which will always be held back from reaching it's full capacity, and therefore giving a return on the government's investment, by the runway restrictions.