This vindicates my comments. Effectively, DAA built something that the airlines did not feel was attractive enough in terms of additional facilities and passenger appeal to be worth extra paying for. If T2 is so much better than T1, then pax would be willing to pay a small amount extra to use it - operating out of T2 would be a sellling point for the airlines. Clearly the airlines don't think that is the case. Therefore, T2 could have been significantly down-specced, made more affordable and been less of a burden on DAA.
It follws therefore that the airlines using T1 ARE subsidising those using T2, as the investment in T1 is nothing compared to the cost of T2. Aer Lingus being subsidsed by Ryanair - who'd have thought it!
MD
If T2 was the Taj Mahal, I don't think Irish people would pay extra to use it. That's the Irish market summed up - people care about facilities but want the cheap fare above everything else. So its not that T2 isn't better than T1, it is, its just that the elasticity of the Irish market means people will jump ship just to get the cheapest fare, no matter how good or bad the facilities are.
The irony is though had the DAA not built T2 and just expanded T1, they would've gotten a lot of abuse off the public about sub-par facilities. Its just a case of the public wanting the best facility available but not wanting to pay for it.