Michael O'Leary's bad maths

Michael O'Leary thinks a second Dublin airport would be a scandalous waste of public money. He has not done his sums well this time. It may very well not be in Ryanair's interest because Ryanair, like other airlines, is hugely subsidised by the taxpayer for its use of Dublin Airport. The aviation regulator only charges €0.07 per passenger for the use of the 2,500-acre site of Dublin Airport because he values the whole site at less than €20m instead of the €5bn it is probably worth. This is public land which should be required to yield a proper return to taxpayers.

If it were properly charged for, passenger charges at Dublin Airport would have to rise to €22 which would dampen somewhat the unsustainable growth of Dublin Airport. If the Fine Gael and Labour proposal to build a second airport to serve the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) was properly evaluated, such hidden costs and others, notably road-traffic congestion costs, would have to be counted and would show that a new, well-sited airport built on low-cost land to the south-west of Dublin would be a huge benefit compared to the continued uneconomic and unsustainable expansion of Dublin Airport from 20 million to 60 million passengers per year. The Portmarnock residents have estimated that expanding Dublin Airport as planned will be a total waste of €4.5bn, whereas a second GDA airport would be an economic boon with lots of spin-offs such as a new town with affordable homes and new jobs where they are needed. The scandalous waste of money is the subsidised set-up at Dublin Airport and its crazy expansion plans.

Matthew Harley
60 Martello Court, Portmarnock