Cork Airport can almost double passenger numbers — Daa chief
Cork Airport could almost double the number of passengers it handles each year if the Government commits to the city's growth by relocating some Government departments there, chief executive of Daa Kenny Jacobs has said.
Cork is expected to handle 2.7 million passengers this year, which would be the busiest in the airport's history for international traffic.
Speaking at the Cork Chamber's Business Breakfast event on Thursday, Cork man Jacobs said the airport could grow further in the coming years.
"Ultimately, I would see Cork as an airport that could become a five million annual passenger airport by about 2030 to 2035, which would be really strong and would mean more choice of destinations for business and leisure," he said.
"It really hinges on planning infrastructure moving very quickly and it hinges on the Government saying we are really going after Cork, not only being the second city in name but relocating some Government departments here and business growing very, very strongly.
There is nothing holding Cork back. It can keep growing as long as the demand is there."
Addressing business leaders, Jacobs restated his view that while they would be interested in working with airlines to see a return of transatlantic flights from Cork to the east coast of the US, ensuring year-round flights to major European cities was a key factor for the future growth of Cork Airport.
He said Daa also plans to increase the capacity of Dublin Airport to 40 million by the end of the decade.
“The population of Ireland is expected to be just shy of 6m by 2030. So Dublin Airport needs to grow to about 37 or 38 million capacity in annual traffic just to keep in line with the natural increase in population with the same amount of flying.”
Mr Jacobs said Daa was strongly supportive of sustainability measures such as more fuel-efficient aircraft and the use of new biofuels but said the right balance needed to be struck
“Ireland is a small open periphery nation. At the moment, there is a political movement in Brussels talking about demand management. They tend to be Dutch, Belgian, Germans and French people saying we should just ban domestic flights and all get the train to the south of France for holidays.
“We can’t do that. We have to make sure we strike the right balance between what we want to achieve on sustainability and what type of economy we want to have today.
Because if we are saying that flying is bad, we are fundamentally saying we need to change our entire economy. Because inward investment, connectivity for jobs, cultural connectivity, all of this depend on flying when you are an island nation on the periphery of Europe.”
Mr Jacobs also addressed criticism of comments he made in an interview with the Irish Examiner last month where he said he could see the return of a flight between Cork and Dublin.
Mr Jacobs told the Chamber audience that if such a flight was to return it would likely be operated by fuel-efficient turboprop aircraft such as those operated by Emerald Airlines and used to connect into transatlantic flights out of Dublin.
