Passengers get view of the future

Passengers travelling through Dublin airport's Pier D will enjoy an experience "which is about space, about comfort, about convenience and about style", Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday.

Speaking as he officially opened the €120 million pier, Mr Ahern noted the panoramic views across the airport and said he was confident that remaining elements of the proposed €2 billion airport investment would be delivered on budget by the end of 2009.

Following a period of testing and staff training the second terminal is scheduled to open in April 2010.

"Pier D is the first part of a two-part construction period," the Taoiseach said, adding that when both were completed passenger numbers through Dublin airport were expected to be in the order of 30 million annually.

The new 15,000sq m Pier D is glass-walled and gives uninterrupted views over the airfield. Passengers using Pier D will access it through a striking "skybridge" which curves around the listed, original terminal building.

The new pier has 12 boarding gates and 14 contact stands which allow aircraft to board and disembark passengers without the aid of buses. Six gates are currently in operation and the remaining six are due to be brought into use when work on the southern side of the pier is complete. The capacity of the pier is about 10 million passengers a year, or 27,000 people per day.

It is intended that the pier will be used initially for short-haul aircraft on routes to and from the United Kingdom and continental Europe.

Passengers should, however, allow 10 to 15 minutes to access the terminal as they must first pass the A gates and then take the skybridge, which is 350 metres long, while the pier itself is a further 250 metres long.

Passengers using Pier D and the airport's A gates will also access a new Garda National Immigration Lounge at passport control. Pier users will have access to a Thomas Read bar yet to open, Hughes & Hughes bookshop and a Soho coffee shop. The pier is decorated with large glass panels featuring images of Irish writers.

The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, a Chicago-based architecture practice founded in the 1930s. Many of its post-war buildings are iconic examples of modern architecture, including Lever House (1952) in New York, the Air Force Academy chapel (1958) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the Sears Tower (1973) in Chicago.

Congratulating the architects, Mr Ahern noted they were currently working on the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which is planned to be the tallest building in the world when completed in 2009.