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?
I'm not sure if its short term thinking or common sense. Lets just say I built a new house with a huge mortgage but I'm now struggling to find tenants, I'm not going to spend more on sticking a conservatory on the back! By all means when they can demonstrate that their core business is back on track then start looking at runway extensions, but to do it at the current time is just imprudent in my view. If it went ahead it will just probably lead to higher fees with the resulting backlash from current operators. So you
might have your Indian transiting 777, but at the expense of more based aircraft and thousands of short haul pax daily.
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.
The new terminal could be used to somewhere approaching capacity if the current operators are suitably approached.
Does the Irish economy have enough cash to splurge out on extending the main runway at DUB and get payback within a generation? Given that the gransiose expansion of the terminal may be a while getting paid off, it seems madness. I know you have to speculate to accumulate but for the love of God, AIR INDIA !?!?!? In the current climate, no one in their right mind will, or ought to back this with their own money. Which leaves the taxpayer of course(!)
Exactly
