A €200 million investment by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) in Cork Airport to cater for a growth in passenger numbers to more than five million within the next decade has been welcomed by Taoiseach Micheál Martin as the most significant investment in the airport in quarter of a century.
Mr Martin noted that Cork Airport, which last year processed more than 3.1 million passengers flying on more than 50 different routes, contributed more than €1 billion to the Irish economy and employed more than 12,000 people directly and indirectly.
“Today is a momentous day for Cork Airport with the launch of an ambitious capital development plan which emphasises the importance of the airport to both the regional and national economy,” said Mr Martin, speaking at the launch of the development plan.
“Cork Airport has become a critical component of our national transport infrastructure and, as Ireland’s fastest-growing airport, its continued development is paramount. I have no doubt that the benefits of this plan will only bring further growth to what is already a thriving airport.”
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Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said the €200 million capital development plan investment comes on top of €50 million in exchequer funding since 2021, which facilitated a number of improvements including a runway remediation costing €10 million.
DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs said that in Ireland’s 2040 plan, significant population growth was predicted in the southern region and this investment in Cork Airport would play an important part in enabling Cork to become “a major European city of size and scale, [which] is a key part of this plan.”
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Cork Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy said the airport’s unique selling point was that it offered “easy, no-stress travel with short walking distances from car parks to gates” and the €200 million investment would be used to maintain this as the airport continued to grow.
He said that among the planned improvements was the construction of a new mezzanine floor over the existing arrivals area to accommodate a new, larger, state-of-the-art passenger security area that would allow passengers to be processed more quickly.
The new security area, which is due to start construction this August and be commissioned by late December 2026, will incorporate the latest security technology – C3 EDS – which eliminates the need to remove liquids, gels, pastes and large electronic items from passengers’ cabin luggage.
The €200 million investment will also facilitate the construction of an improved duty-free shop, 30 per cent larger than the current duty-free shop, which will be completed by August 2027, being accommodated in the existing passenger security screening area, he said.
Mr McCarthy said the capital investment plan would also incorporate the construction of a solar farm over the existing Holiday Blue car park, where solar panels would be mounted on steel frames to provide a canopy over parked vehicles.
Construction of the solar farm will start in January 2026 and be commissioned in August 2026 and, upon completion, will provide for more than 20 per cent of the airport’s electricity needs into the future and will reduce the airport’s dependency on the national grid.
Mr McCarthy acknowledged that, as the airport continued to grow, it would need more car parking spaces, and the Holiday Blue car park will be expanded to create an extra 630 car parking spaces while provision will also be made for an extension to the existing Express Red car park.
Cork Airport opened in 1961 and was run by Aer Rianta from 1969, but in 2004, Aer Rianta became DAA, which retained ownership of Cork Airport. In 2016 a new terminal building was opened at the Farmers Cross site, eight kilometres south of Cork city, at a cost of €140 million.
In 2008 Ryanair had sought to take over the old terminal building but under the Capital Development Plan, both the old terminal building and the old control tower will be demolished and replaced by a new pier with additional boarding gates and new food and beverage outlets.
The anticipated delivery date for this new pier at the southern side of the airport will be 2032-2034 but in the two new boarding gates will be developed in the meantime at the northern side of the airport.
The plan also envisages the installation of a new oversized baggage security screening facility for larger items of hold baggage such as musical instruments, golf bags, skis, buggies and other items, which can’t be accommodated on the standard screening system.
Mr MacCarthy said passenger numbers had grown by 50 per cent at Cork Airport in the past 10 years and now, with more than 50 routes, including strong hub connectivity to London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris Charles de Gaulle, numbers were predicted to top five million in the next 10 years.
