Aviation

Matt Cooper: Tony Ryan’s idea of a second Dublin airport at Baldonnell has come of age

The aviation visionary Tony Ryan’s idea of making Baldonnell into a secondary airport has been shot down on several occasions, but deserves consideration in light of Dublin Airport’s capacity constraints

Tony Ryan: the Ryanair founder had thoughts about using Baldonnell as a second Dublin airport

Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair chief executive, asked me, back in 1995, to deliver a message to his chairman, the airline’s founder Tony Ryan.

“Tell him he can shag off if he thinks Ryanair is moving to Baldonnell,” O’Leary told me.

Baldonnell is where Ryan wanted to locate a second airport for Dublin, using the existing runway at Casement Aerodrome, the headquarters of the Irish Air Corps.

The quote that O’Leary gave me on the record ...