Aer Rianta is abusing its dominant position by favouring Aer Lingus over Ryanair in the provision of services and facilities at Dublin Airport during a major £100 million expansion, Ryanair claimed at the High Court yesterday.
The terminal redevelopment work is being carried out over the winter and is expected to be completed by mid-June next year. When it is finished, the airport will be capable of handling 20 million passengers a year compared with 13 million at present.
Yesterday evening the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Morris, accompanied by counsel for Aer Rianta and Ryanair, went to Dublin Airport to see for himself works about which Ryanair has complained, including the proposed reduction and relocation of check-in desks and baggage conveyor belts during the reconstruction stage.
Earlier Mr Michael Collins SC, for Ryanair, said his client was seeking an injunction restraining Aer Rianta from interfering with or carrying out any construction at Ryanair's check-in desks at Dublin Airport and from removing any baggage conveyor belts servicing its check-in desks and baggage hall loading bays.
Opposing the application, Aer Rianta has denied as absolutely untrue the claim that it had favoured Aer Lingus over Ryanair. All airlines and handling agents were affected by the construction works and it had acted fairly and reasonably in dealing with all parties, it said.
Although invited, Ryanair for its own reasons had decided not to participate in discussions in the context of the terminal extension liaison group until last month, Aer Rianta said.
Under the airport reconstruction plans, Ryanair would have to put up with very much more severe conditions than Aer Lingus, Mr Collins argued.
Ryanair, which up to now had 15 check-in desks, would have these reduced to 12. Two of that number were virtually unusable because of their proximity to an escalator and that effectively reduced the total to 10.
Aer Lingus, with 56 check-in desks, would have that figure reduced by eight, a reduction of just 14 per cent compared to 20 per cent for Ryanair at best and 33 per cent at worst, he said.
Mr Collins said Aer Lingus claimed 3.45 million passenger departures at the airport while Ryanair said it had 1.6 million. This meant that Aer Lingus had one check-in desk for every 61,000 passengers compared to one per 106,000 for Ryanair.