Originally Posted by blaggerman
Please kindly explain what advantage this new CBP facility offers to a hub operation.
You can go through US CBP in Dublin, saving you the hassle of having to do it in America where queues can often leave you standing for an hour. Something Aer Lingus and other airlines can use to attract new connecting traffic through Dublin.
Originally Posted by irishladdie
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.
Thats a fair enough point, but you could also argue you don't build roads with the assumption you'll get your investment back, so why build runways with that logic? Infrastructure itself isn't something that makes any money, its just something that facilitates the trade of third party operators. Look at rail for example, we're pumping billions into new rail infrastructure and it'll be decades before and if it ever gives a return on the government's investment, but that new infrastructure is allowing Iarnród Éireann to expand and allowing more people to use rail. Take the DART and LUAS as examples, they still haven't paid for themselves, but the new infrastructure has allowed them to increase their passenger throughput and turn a profit. Getting back to aviation, look at what the Spanish are doing as well, they're guaranteeing zero charges on airlines if they can sustain 2007 traffic levels, something AENA can't directly afford, and which is the only reason why Ryanair has expanded so much into Spain. But indirectly it brings in more money because airlines expand, which brings in more tourism, which gives a boost to the economy.
Originally Posted by irishladdie
The new terminal could be used to somewhere approaching capacity if the current operators are suitably approached.
I agree current carriers should be approached with more favourable terms like what Spain has done, but I don't think you can/should rely solely on Aer Lingus and Ryanair doubling their capacity through Dublin(as you suggest), particularly when Ryanair refuses to use T2 and would still refuse to use it if the DAA dropped charges altogether. The DAA needs to attract new carriers, and the CBP is something that again could be a huge advantage in being able to attract new long-haul carriers, but the runway length problem outweights any advantages CBP brings.