The growth of Dublin Airport is a key driver of economic growth in Fingal, Dublin and the Irish economy. Dublin airport employs some 16,000 people. It supports or facilitates a total of 97,400 jobs in the country and contributes €6.9 billion to the national economy. A second runway is essential to the continued growth of the airport and I very much welcome the decision to proceed to construction. With 187,700 people still unemployed in Ireland I hope we can all get behind this project.
The new runway will significantly improve connectivity and will support trade, foreign direct investment and tourism. Dublin Airport’s gateway status is highlighted by the fact that 89% of all visitors to the island of Ireland arrive by air and of these 82% arrive via Dublin Airport.
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| At top of image is proposed second runway at Dublin Airport |
Continuing record growth at Dublin airport means we can no longer delay this important piece of critical infrastructure. The runway construction is essential to deal with delays at peak times. The planning application lodged in 2004 took two years for approval and contains 32 conditions. It was postponed due to the recession but even then demand at peak times dropped by only 4 per cent.
More than 25 million passengers passed through the airport last year, beating the previous record, set in 2008, of 23 million. The rapid recovery in passenger numbers is due to a combination of almost 50 new routes and services in the past two years, significant additional capacity increases on a number of existing routes, and nine new airlines operating at Dublin Airport. Total long-haul connectivity has grown by more than 65% since T2 opened, while short-haul connectivity has increased by 16%.
The 3,110 metre runway will be built 1.6km north of the existing main runway at a cost of €250 million and is expected to be delivered in 2020. Dublin Airport is investing a total of €320 million in this multi-faceted project which will comprise multiple contracts and packages of works.
Dublin Airport’s North Runway development has the potential to open up connectivity to a range of long-haul destinations, particularly in fast growing economies in Asia, Africa and South America. The delivery of a new runway could support a further 31,000 new jobs over the next two decades, contributing €2.2 billion to GDP.
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