This week saw a flurry of activity following Daa announcement that Dublin Airport 32 Million passenger cap will be exceeded in 2024, despite actions to dampen airline demand, including ending new route incentive schemes and re-routing of ad-hoc charter flights to Cork Airport, Ireland West Airport and Shannon Airport.
As part of the planning conditions for Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport, a limit of 32m passengers was imposed by An Bord Pleanála (PL06F.220670) in 2007, related to internal and external road airport surface access.
Interestingly both Bengaluru Kempegowda (BLR) and Dublin (DUB) both operate two runways and two terminals, governed under distinct regulatory policy environments. Bengaluru Kempegowda (BLR) serves 108 destinations, year to date handled 37.53 million passengers. Dublin Airport serves 180 destinations and is on track to handle 32 Million passengers in 2024.
The difference is Bengaluru Kempegowda Airport (BLR) operates in an positively supported regulatory environment with local stakeholders including Government of Karnataka. Today BLR Airport is emerging as the primary hub for South and Central India, capitalizing investments made in second runway opened in 2019 and Terminal 2 opened in 2023.
In an Linkedin post the Chief Operating Officer, BLR Airport Satyaki Raghunath stated “We now have two runways / terminals and will cater to over ~40 million passengers / > 465,000 MT of cargo this fiscal year. Over the next decade, we expect to serve in excess of ~85 million passengers / >1m MT of cargo, annually.”
This is also a testament to the original vision for Bangalore International Airport Ltd., and the unstinting support we have got from our investors and shareholders, the Government of Karnataka, Airports Authority of India, the #MoCA, our other partners / stakeholders and most importantly, our employees.”
Interestingly in July in a podcast Magnified with Matt Cooper DAA CEO Kenny Jacobs identified Bengaluru Kempegowda Airport (BLR) as one of the two Indian cities earmarked for future connectivity with Dublin Airport.
During an Newstalk interview Taoiseach Simon Harris sated that it would be more beneficial for people to “send forward solutions” to the passenger cap issue.
For Ireland Inc a new collaborative approach is required under the leadership of Department of the Taoiseach to bring together Dublin Airport stakeholders under a single entity forum or structure, utilizing existing the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006 in the common good.
This is a necessary requirement to remove silos to speed up existing processes and procedures and develop interface, between An Bord Pleanála, Department of Transport, Fingal County Council (FCC) and Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), to ensure alignment with National Aviation Policy 2015, to maximize the capital invested in Dublin Airport two runways and two terminals, to achieve the daa’s vision of “Connecting Ireland with the world.” connecting to new global markets in Brazil, China and India.
Image Credit: Cubbie_n_Vegas
Irish Aviation Research Institute © 7 September 2024 All Rights Reserved
