Minister warns of continuing delays at airport

Airline passengers using Dublin Airport will face continuing delays and upheavals for at least another year, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said yesterday.

Addressing a breakfast seminar on transport issues organised by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Ms O'Rourke said "the bad news" was that while new airport check-in desks and baggage carousels would be operational by the end of the month, allowing Aer Rianta to bring the new part of the terminal into operation, refurbishment of the old part of the terminal would then begin and would continue until next summer at least.

Even beyond that date, "a further phase of substantial investment" to improve access to the city would be required, she said.

Outlining progress on the Aer Rianta £350 million operation to improve services at Dublin Airport, which got under way in 1997, Mrs O'Rourke said that while she accepted the importance of air access for business and tourism, "it is just not possible to carry through a major construction project of this nature on a building that is being used by over a million people a month without some considerable disruption".

Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport are rising by about one million a year and are expected to reach 14 million this year. Since the investment programme began in 1997, the terminal has almost doubled in size, while the capacity of the baggage reclaim system has more than doubled. However, the new systems which would allow use of the extra check-in desks and baggage carousels have not yet been initiated.

This summer, one passenger-handling company began checking in passengers in the car-park. Passengers should "be prepared to put up with continuing, but diminishing upheaval at the airport for the next while," she said.

Ms O'Rourke also warned that while Aer Rianta had been improving road access within the airport, a new phase of investment would be needed to improve access between the city centre and the airport.

This access is to be created as part of the wider Dublin Transportation Office's strategy, which envisages a metro and rail link to the airport by 2015.

Mr David Manley, president of the Chamber of Commerce, said transport in Dublin would continue to be the number one issue in the year ahead.

He challenged the Minister to convince a "sceptical city that the agencies of State can deliver agreed plans in a structured, phased and timely manner".

He warned there were now 23 agencies and Departments of State involved in managing transport issues in the capital.

"Tackling this issue is where the real challenge will be over the coming years," he maintained.