Mr. Kenny Jacobs:

Yes, it will certainly open it for remote stands in that part of the airfield. Remote stands are becoming a much more commonplace feature of European airports. Developing the underpass will open the western side of the airfield for remote stands, which could be used by charter flights and so on. The underpass is something that gets a lot of attention but it amounts to about €200 million within our overall €2 billion capital expenditure programme and is just one of 60 projects.

We have looked at all the options. They included using the perimeter road but that is a long drive that would involve tugs and other essential operational vehicles driving for 20 minutes to get from one side of the airfield to the other. The other option we considered was a barrier, which operated during the construction phase of the north runway, but the IAA safety regulator said "No" to that. The underpass is really the only option that is safe, operationally efficient and good for sustainability. As the airport grows, having a lot of airport vehicles driving long distances to get to the far side of the airway would not be good for sustainability. If you travel frequently, you will see underpasses at Heathrow, Frankfurt and many other hub airports. The underpass is not a novelty project. For me, it is an essential part of the infrastructure. It will open the western side of the airfield for remote stands but we do not envisage it, at this point, opening the western side for a third terminal.