Shake-up for Cork & Shannon.

roundymac

Leo Varadkar has asked an English consultancy firm to review operations at both airports. He has stated that the "present half-way house arrangement2 whereby both Shannon and Cork have their own boards but limited autonomy from the DAA cannot continue indefinitly. He also said the the situation of losses from them being absorbed by the profitable parts of the DAA cannot continue. They are to report back to the minister in a month.
It is understood that the minister is unhappy that no study had been undertaken on seperating the airports. Central to the debate is the €100 million debt that Cork has for the new terminal, which is included in the group borrowings of the DAA. Mr Varadkar said earlier this month there would be no point in seperating the three stste airports only to see one or two of them going out of business.
Booz & Co describes itself as a leading global management consulting company, among their clients would be Chrysler corporation which they rescued from bankruptcy.

Full version of this story is on the front page of today's Irish Examiner.

drdeadlift

Another advisory role filled,we need less career politicians in this country.

Delancey

Wonderful ! Another cop out by the Government who instead of having the brains and/or balls to make a decision , fob it off to a ' management consultancy ' at the cost of several hundred thousand euro :mad:

sparrowcar

I'm surprised at Leo, he had such promise but just hasn't delivered.

Neworder79

Delancey wrote: »

Wonderful ! Another cop out by the Government who instead of having the brains and/or balls to make a decision , fob it off to a ' management consultancy ' at the cost of several hundred thousand euro :mad:

Dempsey sat on the issue for years to avoid making a decision, he should have done the consultancy back in 2006.

If Varadkar just split both from DAA today they would be on death watch by morning given their level of debt and market conditions. Like the country, they need to work out a solution where they can be made to operate independently but with some easing of the debt burden.

Even then Shannon in particular will have a difficult task to restructure to a sustainable cost base given it's historical cushioned existence and large scale infrastructure. But the reality of complacency up the road might be a timely warning to them.

roundymac

Delancey wrote: »

Wonderful ! Another cop out by the Government who instead of having the brains and/or balls to make a decision , fob it off to a ' management consultancy ' at the cost of several hundred thousand euro :mad:

Bit harsh that comment. At least Varadker is doing something about it, you don't expect a heart surgen to give a patient a heart transplant without examining him first. The review will only take a month to complete so lets keep the powder dry for now.:mad:

Delancey

roundymac wrote: »

Bit harsh that comment. At least Varadker is doing something about it, you don't expect a heart surgen to give a patient a heart transplant without examining him first. The review will only take a month to complete so lets keep the powder dry for now.:mad:

Can't agree roundymac - for far too long it has been the policy of Government and Civil Service to call in consultants to deflect criticism when a decision is eventually made.
I don't accept that in the Dept of Transport/Communications there is insufficient information or expertise to make the appropriate decision now.

Hundreds of millions are spent on Consultants reports , it has been called '' governing by consultancy ''.

roundymac

Delancey wrote: »

Can't agree roundymac - for far too long it has been the policy of Government and Civil Service to call in consultants to deflect criticism when a decision is eventually made.
I don't accept that in the Dept of Transport/Communications there is insufficient information or expertise to make the appropriate decision now.

Hundreds of millions are spent on Consultants reports , it has been called '' governing by consultancy ''.

Do you really think the DEPT of Transport/C are capable of making the apropriate decision, because I certainly don't given the present state of our transport system.

drdeadlift

roundymac wrote: »

Do you really think the DEPT of Transport/C are capable of making the apropriate decision, because I certainly don't given the present state of our transport system.

They should be well able to make the right decisions without the help of others.

kub

No prizes for guessing what that report will be recommending.

roundymac

The government have deceided that the Cork and Shannon should remain under the control of the DAA.In his first public comment since receiving the report from Booz consultants, Mr Varadkar added, "but that is not to saythat there cannot be private investment and involment in a way that is not currently the case.The minister said that inevitably over time, Cork Airports debt will have to be paid off by passengers using Dublin airport. Cork is working very well as an airport but the difficulty is that it will not be able to pay off the debt on it's own.

tippilot

Those advocating a civil servent led decision on the breakup of the DAA trilogy should get their heads out of the sand.

When has foresight been the domain of the Irish civil sercice? Has anyone noticed the economic situation in which this country finds itself.

Major strategic aviation decisions in this country have a history of being taken by non aviation professionals.

Has anyone looked at Dublin Airport? The most haphazard, erratic, "where shall we dig next?" piece of aviation infrastructure in Western Europe. There is neither rhyme nor reason to how that airport has developed, where piers and terminals have been located etc.
Another civil servent beauty: Cork Airport was built on a hill, instead of a more suitable site to the east of the city.

Yes allowing Shannon and Cork to self determine is long past overdue but not at all costs. Having a minister employing some external expertise before taking an irreversible decision is to be applauded.

One thing that will have to be taken care of is handing over airports without any major infrastructural outlays on the horizon. For example the ramp at Shannon is not in the best of nick, and will require remedial work, if not relaying(more probably). Would a stand alone Shannon already in decline be able to cover the cost? I doubt it. It is implications like this that need to be thrashed out.

A few more months will make no difference to anyone here, but it may dictate a stand alone Cork or Shannon's chances of survival.

kub

tippilot wrote: »

Another civil servent beauty: Cork Airport was built on a hill, instead of a more suitable site to the east of the city.


A few more months will make no difference to anyone here, but it may dictate a stand alone Cork or Shannon's chances of survival.

Firstly the Eastern site, was there some issue down there with some hill in proximity to that site?
Then of course, if the runway is ever extended properly, I reckon it will end up with stilts running out over the hill, either end 17/35

Then will a stand alone Cork survive, I mean even if they did not build as MOL describes it 'The Taj Mahal'?
By the way whos idea was it anyway to build this yolk, I mean lets be honest here, not bashing Cork now but it is only a regional airport. I mean compared with T2 in Dublin, where there are flights coming in from a hell a lot of more international destinations, with a hell of a lot more passengers to impress.