THE DUBLIN Airport Authority (DAA) has been given the green light from An Bord Pleanála to build a €130 million four-star hotel and 2,500-space car park.

Planning permission for the development was granted earlier this week for a development that will be linked to the new Terminal 2 (T2) facility, which is due to open in the spring of 2010.

Under the plan, Tyrone-based developer and contractor McAleer Rushe will build the entire structure and invest in the hotel.

The car park will be paid for by DAA.

The 11-storey hotel will be built to the front of a four-storey multi-storey car park.

The car park will include 400 dedicated spaces for the hotel and 400 for use by car hire companies at the airport.

The remainder will be available to passengers.

The proposed structure will be close to the proposed metro station.

The 400-bed hotel will be operated as a Crowne Plaza. It will be owned by Irish company Tifco, operators of the Santry Crowne Plaza and Clontarf Castle in Dublin.

About 300 workers will be employed in the hotel when it is completed. Several hundred workers are expected to be involved in its construction.

DAA commercial director Jack MacGowan welcomed the planning decision.

He said the development would be a “major addition” to the infrastructure at Dublin Airport and would provide “quality hotel rooms and business meeting rooms, equivalent to those available at other European airports of Dublin’s size”.

It is not clear when construction will commence but the DAA had stated its hope that the hotel and at least part of the car park would be available in time for the opening of T2 next year.

Since the plans were drawn up, the economic climate has deteriorated sharply with passenger numbers at Dublin Airport set to fall sharply from last year’s level of 23 million.

Traffic through Dublin Airport in February declined by 12 per cent year on year.

Passenger throughput fell by 10 per cent year on year in the first two months of this year.