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Airport’s problems as large as its gigantic mausoleum!
CORK Airport has problems that are as large as its gigantic mausoleum, the new terminal.
Like these, for instance:
• Passenger volume has plummeted to 2005 levels, as they were before the new terminal opened.
• The number of aircraft landing and departing plunged by almost a quarter in the past 12 months. There were 5,960 flight movements in and out of Cork Airport in July, 2008. The figure for July, 2009 was 4,530.
• The drop in Cork was bigger than in Shannon or Dublin.
• The falling level of airline traffic raises questions about the viability of the airport. Gone are Easyjet, Malev, Czech Airlines, Centralwings, Sky Europe, Thomsomfly, Loganair, and Air Wales. Cork is relying on Aer Lingus (in trouble), Aer Arann (in trouble), Whizz Air and Ryanair, plus a handful of flights by Bmi baby.
• How solvent is the airport?
• Originally, the new terminal was to cost §70 million. It ended up a whopping §234 million. Cork has agreed to service a portion of that debt, which will amount to §113m.
• Cork Airport expects an operating loss of §10 million this year before any of the costs of the new terminal are taken into account.
• The government is responsible entirely for the problems at Cork Airport.
• Cork's senior ministers, Micheál Martin and Batt O'Keefe, don't seem to care.
BROKEN PROMISES
Cork Airport is part of the Dublin Airport Authority conglomerate and, despite a solemn Fianna Fail commitment that the people of Cork would not have to pick up the tab for the new terminal, the party reneged on its promise.
Fianna Fail promised that Cork would be separated from the Dublin Airport Authority and would operate independently of it. It reneged also on that promise.
Under the 2004 break-up of Aer Rianta, it was intended the Cork Airport Authority would have the relevant airport assets vested in it and would assume full responsibility for the management, development and operation of the airport. That hasn't happened either and the result is that Cork has been left in limbo.
The argument is made that until Cork Airport is fully independent it will be at a major disadvantage in trying to attract new business in terms of negotiations and marketing.
Although possessing some operational responsibility, the airport remains under the thumb of the DAA and has no say in the financial decisions affecting it. The Dublin Airport Authority is judge and jury.
In the meantime, Cork is responsible for the €113 million debt incurred by the DAA and is without the autonomy to make business decisions for itself. This has an impact on the wider economy throughout the southern region.
DUBLIN RULES, OK?
The airport is a vital asset to the city and county and it is quite wrong that it should be under the control of a competitor whose interests are tied in with the development of the regional economy of the greater Dublin area, not Cork. Indeed, the arrangement is the worst of all possible worlds and beggars belief.
Yet, the Cork Airport Authority ignored the rock-bottom inferiority into which it was dumped and agreed to pick up the €113m terminal debt, an economic handicap to be carried for years to come (if the airport survives that long!). The CAA agreed to the millstone in the belief that the separation of Cork Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority was imminent.
Why the board members of the Cork Authority should have thought such was the case is a mystery they haven't explained. Their action was perceived as nothing more than a foolish attempt at straw snatching – a point illustrated by the fact that Dempsey quickly declared that Cork would continue to remain under the control of the Dublin Airport Authority until at least 2011, or until there was a change in the current economic climate. In other words, the promise of separation amounted to nothing at all and the Leeside boys fell for it.
OLD TERMINAL SAGA
Then, there's the saga of the old terminal. Reports suggest that it's costing two million euros a year to heat and maintain, and that the Dublin Airport Authority - Cork's bosses - intends to knock the building and use the site for a management car park!
Michael O’Leary and Ryanair want to rent the building. It's estimated that a Ryanair involvement would bring thousands more passengers through Cork Airport and an extra one hundred flights per week. Unfortunately, O'Leary is like a red rag to a bull to the Dublin gurus and cynics suggest the Dublin Authority would prefer to knock down the structure (valued at €90m) than let him have it.
The Dublin argument is that he’d have a monopoly in Cork if he got his hands on the building - an extraordinary point of view - and that he'd put the new terminal under threat.
POLITICAL CRONYISM?
Ryanair claims the higher costs in using the new terminal are a barrier to operating more routes out of Cork. In an attempt to see if a deal could be done, some Cork business interests suggested mediation between O'Leary and the DAA, but to no avail. Dublin wasn't interested.
All of which focusses light on the 18-member board of directors of the Cork Airport Authority. What exactly is the function of the board when Dempsey clearly holds it in little regard? The point has been made (perhaps unfairly) that some members are more notable for their connection with Fianna Fail than their experience of airport management.
Nevertheless, board members each trouser in the range of €15,000 a year, which is no mean sum. Question is, what is Cork getting in return.
SIPTU's aviation spokesperson, Dermot O’Loughlin, complained recently that the operation of the three boards at Dublin, Shannon and Cork was extravagant at a time that the Dublin Airport Authority wants to cut jobs at the three airports and to reduce costs by €40 million.
"It is quite simply shameful that workers at the airports could have their jobs terminated or diluted in order that the minister's extravagance can be fulfilled to satisfy what many people will view as an act of political cronyism", he said. He has a point.
Interestingly, a former high profile Cork board member, Loretta Brennan-Glucksman, who is an American philanthropist well known for her promotion of Irish interests here and in the US, resigned out of frustration over the delay in Cork obtaining separation from the Dublin Airport Authority. No one can say she was a ‘political crony’!
Some critics believe that given the basket-case situation at Cork Airport, the rest of the board should follow her honourable example.