Airport at Horseleap would be 'a waste of time' says O'Leary

ian_m

For anyone who might be interested...

The CEO of Ryanair, Mullingar man Michael O'Leary, has said this week in an interview with the Westmeath Examiner, that an airport in Horseleap would represent "a complete waste of time and money".

Midland Airport Development Ltd intends building an airport between Tubber and Horseleap, with the longest runway in Ireland. They have held pre-application consultations with An Bord Pleanála, but no planning application has yet been submitted.

In the interview with the Westmeath Examiner at Ryanair HQ during Christmas week, Mr. O'Leary said that he couldn't see the proposal going ahead, "nor should it".

"Ireland is a small country with a population of four million people.

"Bristol has one airport: it has a population of ten million people. Within two hours of Bristol, there are ten million people. Ireland simply can't support [another airport].." he said.

Pointing out that Ireland already has eleven airports, Mr. O'Leary said that the idea that the country needs another one, in the midlands, when most midlanders are less than an hour from Dublin airport, or less than an hour from Shannon made no sense.

"By any measure, if you're within two hours of an international airport, that's it: there's no room for another international airport there," he said.

In a week when most of Europe was suffering severe flight delays due to hard frost, snow, and freezing fog, Mr. O'Leary also said that there was a practical reason why an airport in the Horseleap area did not make sense:

"The weather record in the midlands is very poor," he said. "We get pretty bad fog five months every winter. The best place to put an airport is on the coast. You don't get the frost and you don't get the fog.

"People get confused: bad weather is storms or intense sunshine. It's neither. Bad weather for aircraft is fog. Ryanair's planes can land in most types of fog, but fog is the thing that really screws up the airport. So Ireland's airports should really be confined to Dublin, Cork, Shannon and maybe Knock." Mr. O'Leary said there is no role or future for any of the other regional airports.

Charging for toilets

The Ryanair boss, who is also the holder of a substantial amount of farm land around Mullingar, also revealed in the interview that he had never been joking when he said he intends charging passengers for using toilets on Ryanair flights, and that he does want to have a "standing area" on flights,

for which customers would pay a lower charge than if they were seated.

"I'm dead serious," he said.

"People misunderstand. They think you only just want to charge to make money. We'll give the money away. The issue for us is we have three toilets on the planes. I want to take out the back two toilets, which means I can add six extra seats to every flight.

"That will bring down airfares by another 4-5 per cent. Airfares for everybody.

You are talking about 66 m passengers, instead next year, of paying an average fare of €40, paying an average fare of €38.

So you will be saving passengers €130-140m a year, just by taking out two toilets.

"But if have only got one toilet on the plane you have to make sure there is less demand for the one toilet because you don't want long queues. And the way you do that is charge for access, so that more and more people use the loos on the ground before they take off or after they arrive. Dead simple.

"I've always been serious about it. I'm also serious about taking out the last ten rows of seats.

"Everybody should have the choice. If you want to stand on that flight it's a fiver, and if you want a seat it's €25. And I think you'd get lots of people who would stand for a fiver. And if it helps us to make flying cheaper, I'm all for it."

Mr. O'Leary conceded that the latter suggestion isn't going to happen "soon": "We can't persuade the regulators at the moment to allow us to do it. They're all huffing and puffing about safety, and we say it's not any less safe than sitting down.

"You get: 'Oh in the case of an accident, somebody might get killed'. Well in the case of an accident if you're sitting down you are likely to get killed too.

But they never want to say that, or you're not allowed say that. The fact is there are remarkably few accidents. We have now been flying for 27 years and, touch wood, we've never had a loss of life."

Article : Westmeath Examiner 30th Dec 2009

diverdriver

He's right. The Horseleap Airport idea is pie in the sky or in the bog. At the moment Galway for example is now less than two hours from Dublin by road. Athlone is less than an hour. There is absolutely no point in building an airport in the midlands. An airfield for GA maybe but not an airport. It'll never happen now anyway. Who is going to lend any money for that?

As is is, most of the regional airports are effectively doomed as the road network improves. With the new motorway, you could almost drop someone off in Dublin Airport for the flight to Galway and then drive to Galway airport and pick them up. Almost!

ian_m

diverdriver wrote: »

you could almost drop someone off in Dublin Airport for the flight to Galway and then drive to Galway airport and pick them up. Almost!

That would be an interesting experiment.

donkey balls

ian_m wrote: »

That would be an interesting experiment.

and the person driving the car would win as they would not have to go through secuirty checks/check in and then ATC flow restrictions etc

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

diverdriver

ian_m wrote: »

That would be an interesting experiment.

It would, wouldn't it? They generally allow for a 45 minute flight time on the timetable. You can add a minimum 30 minute check in to that. That's 1Hr 15. But realistically you have to be there an hour in advance. So it's 1hr 45m. So a realistic 2 hrs allowing for other factors.

People have already driven M50 to Galway in 1hr 30 without strictly adhering to the speed limits. 1hr 45 at the speed limit. You have to allow time to get down the M50 from the airport. The main problem traffic wise is on the M50 until past the Spa hotel in Lucan. After that it's plain sailing. The new motorway almost literally brings you direct to Galway airport.

I think the air passenger would just get there first but would only have a short wait for his or her lift. On some days with a bit of speeding which if we are to be honest, most people do on motorways. The car would be waiting.

On the other hand, if the 'race' starts from somewhere in either city, traffic permitting the car wins everytime.

Tea 1000

diverdriver wrote: »

It would, wouldn't it? They generally allow for a 45 minute flight time on the timetable. You can add a minimum 30 minute check in to that. That's 1Hr 15. But realistically you have to be there an hour in advance. So it's 1hr 45m. So a realistic 2 hrs allowing for other factors.

People have already driven M50 to Galway in 1hr 30 without strictly adhering to the speed limits. 1hr 45 at the speed limit. You have to allow time to get down the M50 from the airport. The main problem traffic wise is on the M50 until past the Spa hotel in Lucan. After that it's plain sailing. The new motorway almost literally brings you direct to Galway airport.

I think the air passenger would just get there first but would only have a short wait for his or her lift. On some days with a bit of speeding which if we are to be honest, most people do on motorways. The car would be waiting.

On the other hand, if the 'race' starts from somewhere in either city, traffic permitting the car wins everytime.

On-line check-in helps the Airline though... plus I was in Dublin the Saturday before Christmas and at around 7pm was standing on O'Connell St, and 30 minutes later I was browsing the shops in Dublin Airport the far side of Departures having gone though security and all! Not bad for a city with poor public transport!
If the Airport proposed was put somewhere just off the Galway motorway though, they could promote it as a replacement for Dublin airport altogether. Everyone I know hates flying from Dublin. And if you're on the M50 on a busy traffic day, getting on the M6 towards a new airport 50 miles away would be a quicker option than Dublin airport up the M50!