Originally Posted by racedo
Cork airport spent €200 million and on what ?
Marseille built a terminal for €10 Million.
Cork was never going to reach 5 million passengers and any claim it was pretty much shows someone has been availing of the local dark liquids.
Look, I don't think anyone could argue with you about the misplaced sense of priority in all this. But I think you might not have a handle on the extent to which the issue is political interference, rather than the management of the DAA per se. The political intention was, basically, that Dublin Airport would give one last bailout to Cork and Shannon before letting them go on their way, debt free. So Cork would have a brand new terminal, copulate expensium.
Incidently, the only complaint the bozos in Cork had about the project while the terminal was being built was there weren't enough airbridges. You can probably imagine the political fallout when, given that this whole turkey was about as financially sound as something that isn't very financially sound, the Government partly reneged on its commitment to making Cork Airport independent and debt-free. Instead, Cork Airport would have to meet half of the cost (just half the cost) out of it's own resources if they wanted independence.
Again, no defence of the cock-eyed priorities, which are much as you see them. Its just not so much about the DAA, and more about political interference by their shareholder. Which leaves us with this looming issue of the investment needed to keep open the runway that handles 75% of national air traffic. Ironically, most West of Ireland tourists enter the country through Dublin Airport. Its more important for West of Ireland tourism than Shannon ever was or will be. But that's not how the political system decides the priorities.