Dublin ‘mandated to compete with Shannon airport’

Incoming DAA chair highlights M20 as another ‘threat’ to Shannon

DUBLIN Airport does look on Shannon as a competitor, the Oireachtas Transport and Communications committee heard recently from Basil Geoghegan, the chairperson designate of the DAA.
Both Dublin and Cork Airport are under the remit of the DAA and while being questioned by Limerick TD Kieran O’Donnell, Mr Geoghegan said it was “clear to me that we are set up to compete with Shannon and if we didn’t we’d have an anti-trust regulator saying to us ‘what are you doing?’
“In fact the biggest competition for Shannon is Cork, maybe it’s a positive that the motorway hasn’t been finished between Shannon and Cork, I’m not sure.”
He said that the improvements in infrastructure over the last ten years have actually made things more difficult for airports other than Dublin.
“In a way the connectivity by better motorways, has meant that both for Cork and Shannon, Dublin is more of a competitor. By the way it’s the same for the airports in the north.”
Mr O’Donnell said travelling through Dublin Airport can be “an unpleasant experience” due to the volume of people there.
“Is there a role for Shannon and the DAA to look at where flights can fly through Shannon that would make it not as difficult? Is there scope for that kind of discussion?” he enquired.
Mr Geoghegan wasn’t particularly positive about it.
“It’s a difficult question to answer in that there’s no obvious easy answer to the point. The real competitor with Shannon, I think, is Cork.”
At this point he was cut off by Deputy O’Donnell, who said that Cork has no transatlantic services and that there is genuine competition between Dublin and Shannon.
“There’s no point in saying we’re not (in competition) because we are. The western seaboard is competing with the eastern seaboard.”
He said the responses of Mr Geoghegan were “kind of giving me the answers”, while he said policy needs to change.
“Clearly there’s a need for a look at national aviation policy. We can’t have a situation where Dublin Airport is bursting at the seams and then we have another State asset, not that far away that has huge excess capacity.”
While being further questioned by Mr O’Donnell, Mr Geoghegan acknowledged that the DAA is trying to get traffic from the other Irish airports.
“I think our mandate with both Dublin and Cork is to compete against other airports.”
Asked if he saw Shannon as a direct competitor, Mr Geoghegan began “As a competitor in some ways, but equally we see Kerry and equally Ireland West…”
At this point he was again cut off by Deputy O’Donnell. “With due respect Mr Geoghegan, Shannon Airport has flights into all the main destinations in transatlantic. Kerry doesn’t have that, it is a different model, Knock is a different model.”
The Limerick TD said that plenty of information could be gleaned from what Mr Geoghegan had said.
“You’re kind of giving me the answers, you’re refreshing in your honesty and I appreciate that. Because that tells me where Shannon as an airport stands. There is an element of David versus Goliath.”