Dublin Airport’s second terminal is finally rounding the last corners of completion, even though its overall design lacks corners altogether. The airport developed much faster than was first anticipated and is expected to be fully operational by November of this year.
Terminal 2 is more a work of art than an airport terminal. Designed by Pascall & Watson Architects, the building itself is a three story cylindrical complex with what will be the new airport access road running straight through the centre of the 70,000 sq. metre complex, 9,000 sq. metres of which will be retail. According to the official DAA website the new terminal “will create a bright airy space for passengers that is calm and relaxing” through the use of natural light and open spaces.
The DAA will do all they can to make sure that the new terminal lives up to what they said it would, but with a Celtic Tiger price tag and no more Celtic Tiger economy, this could prove difficult.
The entire project is costing €609 million with €395 million of that being spent on the terminal itself, €100 million of which is going towards internal fit-out alone. The terminal has fifty-eight new check-in desks as well as facilities for self service check-in, online check-in, baggage drops along with nineteen new aircraft stands.
T2 will also avail of the US preclearance system which, it is hoped, will make it an even more attractive airport to international customers. The only other airport in Europe at present with this facility is Shannon.
The government first directed the DAA to make plans for T2 in 2005 after record breaking numbers using Dublin airport in 2004, at over 17 million passengers. At the time the project began it was believed that the airport would reach 30 million passengers by 2020. Obviously the current economic crisis was not anticipated. T2 will be used for all long-haul flights and was specifically designed for transatlantic routes.
Ryanair has from the very start rejected the need for T2. Controversy ensued when it advocated a smaller €250 million terminal which meant that passengers would be charged less. It has, along with many other European airlines, said that it will not be using the new terminal which the DAA is having serious pro
blems trying to fill. Currently only three out of the airport’s six transatlantic operators have signed up to T2, including American Airlines, Continental and Aer Lingus with Delta, US Airways and Air Canada as of yet undecided.
The DAA is under severe pressure now to move more airlines in before it opens in ten months time. With passenger numbers at the airport having dropped an expected 11% in 2009 it is safe to say that it will be quite a while before T2 reaches maximum capacity.
There will no doubt be more controversy over T2 in the coming months. If nothing else it will represent the Celtic Tiger era of prosperity.
T2 was designed by the very company who designed the Sydney Opera House and who knows, maybe it will be seen as a new symbol of Ireland, just as the Opera House is to Australia.
Only time will tell whether it will show the world that Ireland is back and ready for business – or serve as a glaring reminder of another way which money was squandered.
