Mr. Kenny Jacobs:

Yes. We are happy with our progress. It is a stable operation and will continue. We have invested in a large number of new positions in the security operation – we will have close to 1,000 people in that regard. Security will improve further as we roll out the C3 scanners, which are like MRI machines. They are much better for compliance, but they are also a better passenger experience because people do not have to take liquids out of their bags. I hope some of the committee’s members have had this experience going through Dublin Airport. We intend to roll the machines out across T1, T2 and Cork Airport. In the coming decades, they will probably become the norm at all European airports.

The committee will see from the next slide that we are driving a great deal of innovation. I believe it was at our previous meeting that someone asked me about the viewing point on Old Airport Road. That is the top picture on the slide. We are planning to ask Fingal County Council to make the viewing point something much better for people who like to come out to see aircraft take off and land. I do that with my kids on a regular basis. We want to make the viewing point one of our community initiatives in the years ahead.

There has been significant invest in our app and the baggage screening system. I have already mentioned the C3 security machines. There is much more investment in maintenance and we are sprucing the place up. We are adding more food and beverage options so that, when passengers are at the terminal, there are plenty of places to go and shop. Obviously, that is good for our bottom line as well. We appointed a new managing director of Dublin Airport at the end of the summer, Mr. Gary McLean. We have also appointed a new managing director of DAA LABS, which will drive our digital innovation. There is a lot of digital work under way across security, infrastructure and sustainability at airports and in aviation more generally. It is one of the key areas in which we see ourselves investing. Sustainability and digital go hand in hand and will be two key pillars in driving the organisation forward.

Regarding better lounges and more seating capacity for passengers, we have a capacity of approximately 500 passengers in our lounges. We would like to double that in the years ahead. This would involve a larger platinum lounge as well as more lounge capacity in T1 and T2, which passengers are looking for. A new Dublin Airport app has been launched and there will be regular updates to it. I have already mentioned the new community viewing area. There will be further improvements in Wi-Fi and air conditioning. We need additional air conditioning because the C3 security machines generate much more heat. There will be more mobile phone charging points. This will include the repair of some of those points that the Leas-Chathaoirleach mentioned when we last met in October. There will also be more EV spaces. EV ownership is growing and we want to be able to offer people the ability to drive from anywhere in the country, park at Dublin Airport and charge their vehicles while they are on their trips. Their vehicles would be fully charged when they return and picked them up.

We will have a modest increase in charges in 2024. These are regulated charges, and they will increase by approximately 5% at a time when our cost inflation is over 10% and, for the third year in a row, air fares have increased by close to 30%. Airline balance sheets are in a fantastic position post the pandemic, and good luck to them. That is very good, and they are using the money to invest in modern fleets. I would like the charges at Dublin to increase further because, even with the increase in 2024, our charges will still be less than half the European average for capital cities. The charges at Shannon and Cork should also increase, as that would allow those airports to invest further in what they would like to invest in, for example, the roll-out of C3 scanners and additional resources in their organisations.

Cork Airport had a good summer. As the next slide shows, new routes have been added and will continue to be added. People sometimes tell us that the DAA is all about Dublin Airport, but it is not. I am from Cork and am wearing my Cork pin. We are looking to grow Dublin from 32 million passengers to 40 million, representing a 25% increase, by 2030, but we are looking to grow Cork Airport by more than that. Cork Airport does not have a planning restriction and there is a large national plan to develop Cork city and county. By 2040, the population of the city and county will be 1 million. This will drive demand for travel, which will see further routes added at Cork Airport. This year, Cork Airport will have its biggest ever year in the context of international travel. I see that continuing. We definitely want more airlines to fly to and from Cork. It has had a very good summer this year. The people of Cork are delighted to see routes like La Rochelle added. I believe we will see more of the same from Ryanair and Aer Lingus. Cork could get to 4 million or 5 million passengers.

We will be investing in Cork’s infrastructure. For those members of the committee who know Cork Airport, the bottom right-hand image on this next slide is a diagram explaining what the infrastructure at Cork would look like – many more stands, which potentially means many more aircraft. As Cork Airport expands, we would knock the old terminal, with a new pier taking its place. Aircraft would be parked up against it. As you come into the existing terminal, you would go left down to the new pier. We will also be rolling out C3 screening machines in Cork, a solar farm will be developed in 2024 and a new electrical substation was recently launched. We have big plans for Cork. It is stable and I see the airlines becoming more interested. If Dublin is capped, some airlines will put on routes to Cork, but that would be in the margins. I do not see it happening lock, stock and barrel. Having worked in the airline business, airlines generally say that they will look at Cork and Shannon in terms of regional competition between those airports, but they do not really look at taking routes out of Dublin and moving them to Cork or Shannon. Rather, they will look at duplicating routes. I hope that Cork and Shannon grow in the years ahead.

I will move on to flight paths, noise and the community. Flight paths were recently discussed. These are designed by experts to align with planning and international safety regulations. We are responsible for the flight paths. We delegate that responsibility to AirNav Ireland as the air navigation service provider, ANSP. Flight paths are examined and approved by the IAA in its role as the regulator. When the north runway at Dublin launched, we had flight paths that, from August until February of this year, was overflying some parts of the communities that were not consulted. That has been fixed since February and we have apologised for our error. I am happy to be able to say that those flight paths are now fully compliant with what we consulted the communities on. This will continue to be the case. That is pretty much what I have to say about flight paths. We are responsible for them. We do this work with AirNav Ireland and we consult the IAA, which signs off on the flight paths.

Regarding noise, we released a document, entitled The Facts on Noise Management and Mitigation at Dublin Airport, at the end of the summer because we wanted to demonstrate what had happened since 2019. There has been a 50% reduction in the number of households impacted by noise compared with 2019. There were always two runways at Dublin Airport. The crosswind runway was used when aircraft were taking off in very windy conditions and sent aircraft straight over Whitehall, Beaumont and Santry. A large number of households were impacted by noise on those windy mornings in particular. That has now changed with the north runway, which is why a much smaller number of households are impacted by noise. This year, we announced an incentive for airlines that used quieter and more sustainable aircraft. This discount on charges will kick in next year.

We take the issue of noise very seriously. It is a big topic for aviation and airports across the world. The good news is that aircraft are getting quieter. Ireland is progressive compared with other European countries. We have an effective noise regulator in the aircraft noise competent authority, ANCA. We invest in noise monitoring to see where the noise is. There are strict noise contours, which are managed by the ANCA. We have insulted 150 homes, or three quarters of the 200 that the ANCA’s noise modelling suggests we could and should insulate. Fifty have not been insulated because those households have not asked us yet. As soon as they do, we will go ahead and insulate them against noise. This insulation brings noise levels right down for households. I see us probably insulating a couple of hundred homes in the years ahead. We have a relevant action in with An Bord Pleanála, within which we have an additional noise insulation scheme that we would like to get improved. We would then proceed to insulate more homes.

We are constantly working on this with ANCA. We meet with it regularly and will continue to do that. We take noise very seriously. It is about monitoring and insulating homes. We have bought out homes that are very near the end of the runway and will continue to do that. That is at 30% above the market price.

I have touched on noise mitigation measures. There are 200 homes eligible for this, of which 150 have been completed so far. We continue to monitor this. We have good engagement with Kilcoskan school. It is a topic that has been discussed at the committee. We had our last meeting with the principal this morning. We are working on a few options that we would like to put in place for the kids there, especially those with special needs. I met the principal about a month ago and we had a second meeting this morning. We are exploring what we are going to do there. A new complaints system is in place. That is a good thing because then there is full disability on the noise complaints for ourselves, Fingal County Council and ANCA into the future.

On community engagement, I think we are a good neighbour in Fingal and we continue to want that. It is something we need to continue to work at. We have a €10 million community fund available for projects in the local area, of which €2 million has been invested since 2017. More than 100 projects will be funded this year alone. That is also supported by events we have done such as the recent Halloween event in Swords Castle. There has been very good ongoing community engagement. People are constantly out meeting households, nursing homes and schools and really engaging with the community to hear back from them on their views and what more we can do. We want to be a good neighbour and I consider that we are a good neighbour. We are constantly listening and will continue to engage, to do what we need to and to take their ideas on board.

Turning to the economic impact study, it is Dublin Airport but it is Ireland’s airport. I am a big fan of all the airports in Ireland and aviation in general but Dublin Airport is Ireland’s airport and is the gateway to Ireland. Some 16,000 jobs are supported at the airport. More than half of those are outside Dublin city and county. It provides €9.6 billion in economic value added or 2.3% of the economy. That is really important. Dublin airport plays a really important role in connectivity, including for businesses investing in Ireland. We hear that from the business community. We launched this economic impact study in the Oireachtas with both IBEC and Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Dublin Airport is a key driver of economic success on this open island on the periphery of Europe and it is a key driver of jobs. Some 27% of the jobs are in Fingal and 21% in the rest of Dublin but 52% of the jobs are in the rest of the country.

On planning and the passenger cap, we will fully comply with the 32 million passenger cap on Dublin airport. That will only change when we get planning permission to go above that. That is a matter of fact and what we will continue to do. That is leading to tough conversations with the airlines. The airlines have said publicly they are unhappy with the cap and it should be lifted. We would like the cap to be lifted. I hope it is once we get planning and I hope we get planning as quickly as possible but it will take a while. We will submit our infrastructure application to Fingal County Council by 15 December. The sooner it is approved the better. There will be challenges. It is a very good infrastructure application. I will play the committee a video shortly that describes what that will do. Until then, we will be fully compliant with the cap on Dublin Airport. The cap is a planning condition linked to surface access. We would be managing to that, and we are managing actively down capacity. We have taken out transit passengers. We have taken away a growth incentive from the airlines. We will look at how we will manage this from 2024. That puts difficult choices on the table such as charter flights, non-scheduled flights and general aviation. We might say the priority will be scheduled commercial services with passengers on board and that will create some difficulty. I am sure the committee will have had representations from people saying they are unhappy with this and the cap should be lifted but we will manage to the cap and the restriction until we get a green light on planning. That will lead to difficult choices but that is what we have to do until we get the new planning permission. The impact with be on general aviation and business checks on sports and special events. These include events such as the Europa League final or the six nations. Where charter jets are looking to come to Dublin Airport, we may tell them that they need to go to Shannon, Cork or Belfast as we cannot accommodate them because we are managing the 32 million passengers. I am just flagging that; it is not new news but it is important everyone understands that.

Generally, caps do not work. The cap at Schiphol Airport was mentioned a couple of times at the committee. This week or last week, the cap there was removed. It was challenged by the European Commission for being anti-competitive. There was a view that it would aid sustainability but all that happened was Air France-KLM moved hub traffic to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. That is really what happened. Caps do not stop flying. They just move the flights some place else. A cap at Dublin Airport will just make the airlines move to another big hub airport such as Manchester or Edinburgh. An airport like Edinburgh is already talking to the airlines to the effect that if Dublin is capped, it will give them a special incentive to do transatlantic routes there. That will not be good for jobs in Ireland. It will not take flights out of the sky within the EU and the UK; it will just move them elsewhere.

There is another myth that if Dublin is capped, the flights will move to Shannon and Cork because that is what happened in the Netherlands. When Schiphol was capped, flights did not go to Rotterdam and Eindhoven. Again, it is hub traffic that just went to Charles de Gaulle. Generally, caps do not work for sustainability or for moving capital city airline traffic to the regional airports. There is a better way to do sustainability and to develop the traffic at the regional airports here in Ireland. It is good that the cap at Schiphol has moved. In general, they do not work.

If the traffic is capped at 32 million passengers in coming years, it would lead to reduced jobs. Approximately 16,000 jobs that could be created in Ireland, in Leinster, Dublin and Fingal, would be lost. They will go elsewhere. Air fares will go up because I suspect the airlines would do two things. They would say they would not put their newest aircraft in Dublin, which will not be good for noise and sustainability, and if demand is managed down with an artificial cap, air fares will go up. It is as simple as that. There is evidence to support that in Amsterdam and any other city that has had a cap.

Dublin is the fifth largest hub in Europe and we want to develop it as a hub into the future and to really improve the airport. Caps do not work. Keeping it will just lose jobs. We will lose connectivity. Bringing the connectivity back is a big challenge. If Aer Lingus and Ryanair said they were moving the capacity we had hoped to add to Dublin to Manchester, Edinburgh, Gatwick and other airports, it would be a challenge for us to get it back and to get the jobs associated with that traffic back. It would be wrong for Ireland and for Dublin Airport.

Turning to the timeline, we are all aware of what happened in 2008, the economic cycle and the things that happened there. That led to a big dip in aviation. Then we got on with planning for the north runway and after that there was Covid. That is why we are getting the planning application in now. If planning in Ireland was faster, everyone would say that would be good and that would help us. The infrastructure application we will submit on 15 December is very good and will show how we plan to develop Dublin Airport. Some of its key elements include a new extended pier 1 in the north apron and a new pier 5 in the south. If someone goes through terminal 2, then duty free and goes right to go to the gates, he or she will be able to go left. That will be a new pier for transatlantic flights. New C3 security machines will be added in terminals 1 and 2 and a new mezzanine floor will be added to terminal 1. We will start with security but then we will move fast track too. We will also have a new lounge there. In the airfield we will have a new underpass to get vehicles to the west side of the airport.

We will add a new apron and drainage infrastructure. On landside, we will add much more public transport infrastructure, parking and car hire facilities. I hope many more people in the years ahead come to Dublin Airport on the bus. I hope, from about 2035 onwards, that people will take metro north. That would be great as we would have fewer vehicles coming with individual drivers and fewer people sitting on their own in the back of a taxi, with more people using public transport. We are ready for the metro north station at Dublin Airport. That is all ready to go. We are a key part of the transition we need to make.

I might show the video now and then will say more. It will essentially describe what is in the infrastructure application and how the airport will develop.