An Bord Pleanála's decision to grant planning permission for Terminal 2 and for a second runway at Dublin airport was broadly welcomed yesterday by business interests, with the exception of Ryanair, the airport's biggest customer.
Jim Callaghan, Ryanair's head of regulatory affairs, said the low-cost carrier would go to the High Court in the coming weeks to seek a judicial review of the decision.
Mr Callaghan said Ryanair, which puts 10 million passengers through Dublin airport, was unhappy with the cost and scale of the new terminal, adding that it would add significant extra volumes of traffic to the area.
"We presented evidence to the inspector that this is massively oversized," Mr Callaghan said.
On a brighter note for the Dublin Airport Authority, Mr Callaghan welcomed the permission given for a second runway there. "We'd welcome the fact that a second runway will go ahead," he said.
Other airlines welcomed the decisions. A spokesman for Aer Lingus said: "Capacity at Dublin airport has been under pressure for some time and was a constraint on the development of business. We look forward to development getting under way as any further delay would be in nobody's interests."
Geoffrey O'Byrne White, chief executive of CityJet, an Aer France subsidiary which operates routes from Dublin to London and Paris, welcomed the decisions and expressed the hope that airlines like his own would be better served in future.
"There is a need for the business community to be served from Dublin airport and we hope that airlines serving the business traveller are looked after and won't be left behind as they have been [ at Terminal 1] to serve low-cost carriers," he said.
John Power, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, said the decisions would help Ireland double its tourism revenues to €10 billion over the next eight years.
"Standing still is not an option," Mr Powers said. "Tourists and business travellers deserve better treatment than they are getting at the moment."
The IDA, which had complained that the current congestion at Dublin airport was putting off foreign investors, said the expansion would benefit the economy. "Modern infrastructure is a pre-requisite for inward investment and will benefit everybody," a spokesman said.
