Well, work is starting on T2 soon, whether we believe its in the wrong place or not! I forgot about the new runway ruling out T2 being near the current SR technics buildings! Maybe a midfield site, like where the ATC tower and Fire Station is?

It's too close to the required service entry date of 2009 to be messing about with the design of T2 (when, of course, they actually confirm what it is!) They need to work with what's planned for now, but ensure that the available space is used as efficiently as possible. As I mentioned above, moving cargo ops to a new site west of 16/34 would free up parking space for pax aircraft.

Given the importance of the airport to continued economic growth, it is vital that there is interest at government level - the DAA must be in no doubt that it is being watched by a steely eye and that there will be consequences for making a dog's dinner of things again. Oversight is the key; the government must also be prepared to direct and set out goals, in terms of pax and cargo handling and the future shape and development of the airport.

The McEvaddy's having bought a strategic piece of land (that AR probably don't want to pay over the odds for) probably doesn't help.

I keep harping on about this whenever it comes up, but the priority should be one single usable terminal. For example - T5 in Heathrow will have enough pax capacity to handle DUB pax for decades. Ditto Pearson "new" T1.

The new stands shouldn't have been lumped onto the existing piers but beside 10/28 between it and the parallel (whenever that happens) - just like at Toronto Pearson. Make that a Ryanair or all-loco 737 optimised pier for simplicity of equipment. The pier can connect for supplies via a cut/cover tunnel which would eventually be covered by 10L/28R and via a bored tunnel for airport buses to run from check-in/bag reclaim+customs at the main terminal or the heritage terminal. I've used YYZ's infield pier twice as SLF and it is not unduly annoying to use, although it adds a bit to your minimum check-in time.

Then you get going on a complete rebuild of the existing main DUB terminal, integrating the old heritage terminal if possible rather than enveloping it, gradually transferring ops to the new building. (It was easier at YYZ as they demolished T1, but they are gradually eating into T2 now which will disappear in due course).

One other thing - the practice of shuttling the Government ministerial aircraft to DUB from Baldonnel to pickup ministers is a disgrace logistically and environmentally and should be stopped.

Fair point that. But if these guys are bad , the Minister responsible for them is utterly inept. It really showed how knowlagable ****** is about his portfolio. He described the opening of the ORK terminal as 'a bloody shambles' and moaned about how much it cost. It was clearly implied that those responsable for ORK should be shown the door. So come on minister, show them the door, but dont forget that its not those at the airport you are visting that are responsible, but those at the airport you are leaving!

Now listen up guys. And I should add this first. I and my colleagues do not have the time or are interested in providing it to those of you who are persisting in innuendo and using names in a fashion which is close to the edge of PPRuNe's strict rules in regard to outing people.

I am going to close this thread for a while - to allow you to recognize where this thread MUST go from here. NO NAMES, NO COUCHING OF NAMES, NO POINTING FINGERS.

Stick strictly to debate. If you are not in a position to decide who what or where about ANYTHING then do not assume that you are and stop this ridiculous attempt at playing CEO.

NOTHING belongs to any one of you so all you can do is discuss it and that is all.

PPP

They seem to be leaving people on stand now....better to keep things away from the terminal building i would think!!

Dublin Airport evacuated amid major security alert



13:58 Tuesday July 4th 2006



Dublin Airport has been evacuated this afternoon amid a major security alert believed to have been sparked by a bomb warning.
Details of the incident are still sketchy, but the terminal building has been evacuated and all traffic is being prevented from entering the airport.

Witnesses said airport staff entered the departures area and told everybody to get out as quickly as possible.

Gardai say the alert was sparked by a suspicious bag in the arrivals hall.

There are unconfirmed reports that a man entered the building claiming to be carrying a bomb.

Another wildly over-the-top reaction designed to breed hysteria.

selfin,

Why do you say that? do you know something we do not?

I should think a fair number of you know enough. If even privately.

Some muppet entered the arrivals hall with a bag over his head screaming its a bomb, it's a bomb.
I would hate to think it was over the top hysteria if this muppet was in fact carrying a bomb, eh Selfin?

And who's going to go to the trouble of preparing one, entering an airport, then telling everyone? It doesn't work both ways. Either you complete the task, or you bring a bag full of bricks.

And if he was carrying a bomb, and they didn't evacuate, would you be happy for the authorities to say ah well, we didn't take him seriously?

Would you be happy with the multiple casualties?

Would you not accept that it's better to be safe than sorry?

I would always prefer to have one lunatic in custody than a hall full of bodies, selfin. Maybe thats why "Hysteria" took hold today.

If you leave that door open for knee-jerk reactions, you leave your society vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation. What sort of economic damage was done today, do you suppose, never mind the loss of peacefulness?

Miles Hi, Quite.

Selfin, conspiracy theories may be entertaining but they are not (usually) the real world. I have personally (many years ago) closed down an ATC unit (on the Emerald Isle) and bought in EOD due to someone’s dirty washing (literally), no one objected because we all knew the danger was real.

You can not discount lunatics, fanatics or “freedom fighters”.

Nor can you dismiss the plethora of rock solid evidence that the vast majority of terrorism we're told about is purely synthetic. I will remain steadfast on this point until more convincing physical evidence to the contrary becomes available - and even then, we'll have some serious rewriting of the laws of physics to do, in order to satisfy the general belief that terrorism is not synthetic.

So economics is more important than innocent peoples lives in a civilian airport?

Shame, Selfin.

Innocent lives at risk? At risk from the real threat of death by whom, exactly?

Selfin, they have a man in custody. Whether he was genuine or not, there is tangible evidence that he threathened to blow up the airport.

What next? Do you suggest that Fire Brigades don't attend 999 calls because they think its a hoax? No matter how serious or not a nutjob like this is, he must be taken seriously until the threat is neutralised. Shame, in a civilised society, but it's fact.

EIDW: Some chap, a nutjob - we can agree - strolls into the unsecured side of the terminal claiming to hold an explosive. The airport is evacuated. Aircraft are told to wait, with the doors shut. Airport unusable for a couple of hours. A fair bit of economic damage, plenty of terrified punters, and next we'll have the war-cries for increased security. You call this a civilised society? I call it something else.

If one nutjob can achieve all this on his own, no amount of security will fix the problem. This is a problem which, if treated in the way it was today, will culminate in a seriously terrified and enslaved public.

So Selfin, oh font of all knowledge, pray tell how you would have reacted today, had say, your family been in the terminal. You would have ignored him, because he's a nutter, and he'll go away?

What Rubbish!!!

I really haven't got the time to go into it today, but, as a regular user of Dublin airport, I must say I agree wholeheartedly with Selfin.

1 Evacuate area
2 Ask nutter if he really has bomb
3 If yes, shoot nutter
3 If no bang - clean up mess & reopen area. Shooting justified & nuisance to public minimised
4 If bang - shooting & evacuation justified. Start clean up.

We should start to play without rules, just like they do.

I agree. Time for strength and clear commitment in the face of terrorism. Or simulated terrorism. No let-offs.

Well Selfin, simple question...would you not have evacuated the terminal or done nothing at all had you been in charge...what if you happened to be standing beside this chap as he walked into the terminal? Would you have at least moved a safe distance away from him JUST IN CASE he was serious? I think you would have.

But I also think you are just enjoying a good wind up on here today so I suggest we all ignore him!

Letter to Irish Independent, 4th July, 2006
 

Before the day is out it is only right that a certain letter on Dublin Airport to the the Editor of today's Irish Independent should be acknowledged. The letter made a great case for improvements in airport infrastructure at Dublin Airport and how the airport has probably the shortest runway of any capital city so preventing the maximum use of both cargo and passenger aircraft to points in Asia - this despite a huge Irish government presence in Japan and China in recent days promoting Irish commercial interests in the area.

Maybe it is mixing of metaphors but there is no denying the crowd whom are charged with running the State airports at both Dublin and Cork are completely all at sea due no doubt due to the decades and decades of Government impotence in the face of opposition from the lobbies supporting the stopover position at Shannon.

How our nation has suffered for decades at the hands of such incompetence. Dublin and especially Cork goes on to pay every single day becuase of the long political patronage of Shannon because if you think for a second that Cork's new terminal solves everything you are mistaken.

1635712
 

Couldn't agree with you more Tom. However it must be said that those that should have known better in Aerlingus and Aer Rianta decided to remain silent about the massive damage that the Shannon Stopover was doing to Irish Aviation.

Dublin is now on its way to being Ireland's true transatlantic airport and SNN may just about hang on to JFK and BOS. Cork should also get a 757 service to these cities if management there play their cards right.

Here ya go:

A 48-year-old man has appeared in court charged in connection with yesterday's bomb scare at Dublin Airport.

John McHugh, who has an address at Mountjoy Square in Dublin, has been remanded in custody with consent to bail.

Mr McHugh has been ordered to sign on daily at Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station and to stay away from Dublin and Shannon Airports.


Gardaí told the court the man's actions led to Dublin Airport being shut down for two hours yesterday.

Flight schedules at the airport are returning to normal today after the chaos caused by the hoax bomb alert.

The airport reopened at around 4pm yesterday afternoon, but passengers faced huge delays and a heavy backlog of traffic on the roads surrounding the airport for the rest of the evening.

Most flights did eventually take off after a long delay but Ryanair cancelled nearly 20 of its departures to and from Britain and Cork.

Would this 48 year old have tried such a stunt if there were armed police / army patrolling? I think the incident clearly shows yet another flaw in Dublin's security.

Ryan2000, Ei did not remain silent on the shannon stop, in fact I can remember at least one campaign "WHY CANT I FLY DIRECT TO DUBLIN" or something like that. In addition EI went ahead and leased 2x767 to start a direct LAX svc to force the governments hand - all to no avail.

EI-RB, while a direct service to the US from Cork might look like a no brainer, it appears tha the demand is not there. North American Airlines (in assoc with a Cork Travel Agent) planned a 3 times a week svc last year with, as you proposed a B757, and guess what it was cancelled before it even started due to lack of interest!!!

Well, if we all have to live with the cursed legacy of the stopover let us turn it all on it's head - why not send one of the snn based EI A330s to Cork twice a week and let her go west from snn if that is the only way around it. If you cant beat 'em with the stopover join 'em!

Diluting of yield, short runway, low cloud, CAT3 too problematic - every conceivable excuse be it credible or no is used to hold back Cork. Shannon has never had some many scheduled flights across the Atlantic as it has this year so there is absolutely no doubt a credible carrier could pull off a flight to America from Cork out of all this combined market from snn which would still leaving snn having a huge lion's share of the total.

As for the last year's fiasco with the Slatterys and Ryan International charters to New York. Cork passengers were betrayed. Up to Christmas the bookings were believed to have been fine and then this 5h!Te about a fuel surcharege was introduced to kill it off. How opportune indeed and it does not take too many guesses where all the benefit later went after following the cancellations.

Cork passengers were clearly betrayed in this matter. How many pax did EI lose from snn and DUB to America when they introduced a fuel surcharge for the first time this summer?

Another scare

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0707/airport.html

Tom, I`m sorry to have to scupper your great lans for De Capital, but EI has banned its 330s from Cork. The reaon being, Corks Runway is narrower(even including the turning circle) than allowed by Airbus for turns which could cause cracks in the main gear. True its not going to happen onthe first day of operation, but over time it requires additional inspections and maintenance action. The best action would be to get an oul bulldozer and start building that parallel taxiway as so proudly illustrated in the model up in departures!

Dublin Airport: Going for Disruption Record?
 

A bomb scare: Bad luck

A bomb scare and union action: Bad luck and pretty annoying

A bomb scare, union action and another bomb scare this morning: :mad: annoying, wasteful, commercially damaging and bordering on absurd.


Are people who cause this level of disruption (hoaxers, not the unions) not able to contemplate the level of frustration and serious stress they cause to the travelling public and indeed airport employees?


sr

Well....When they do it in Dublin...THEY DO IT IN STYLE!

If I were to coordinate the two incidents, I would make sure the two incidents looked unrelated by using two such disparate mules!

Oh god, the conspiracey theorists are at it again...This should be a laugh!

apaddyinuk

I'm not saying it is a conspiracy, I just don't agree with shamrocks logic for the two being unrelated.

I believe they found the owner of the bag. I'll bet he was mortally embarrassed. No conspriracy, just paranoia given the the day that was in it.