Dublin Airport
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| Dublin International Airport | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick Info | |||
| Type of Airport | commercial | ||
| Run by | Dublin Airport Authority | ||
| Opened | January 19, 1940 | ||
| City | Dublin, Ireland | ||
| Coordinates | Template:Coor dms | ||
| IATA | DUB | ICAO | EIDW |
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| Meters | Feet | ||
| 10/28 | 2637 | 8650 | Concrete |
| 11/29 | 1356 | 4448 | Asphalt |
| 16/34 | 2073 | 6800 | Asphalt |
| Statistics | |||
| 2004 | |||
| Number of Passengers | 17,100,000 | ||
| Comments on this test infobox | |||
Dublin International Airport (IATA Airport Code; DUB, ICAO Airport Code; EIDW) is Ireland's main airport. The airport is located six miles north of Dublin City in an area properly known as Collinstown. It is operated by Dublin Airport Authority, which also administers Shannon Airport and Cork International Airport.
Dublin Airport mostly handles internal Irish flights and flights to Britain and Europe. Services to the United States also operate through Dublin. The airport is the headquarters of the national airline of Ireland, Aer Lingus. Other airlines that have hubs at Dublin include Aer Arann and Ryanair.
History
In 1936 the Irish Government established a new civil airline, Aer Lingus, which began operating from the military aerodrome at Baldonnel. However, the decision was made that a civil airport should serve the new air service. Collinstown, just north of Dublin, was selected as the new civil aerodrome. Construction of the new airport began in 1937. By the end of 1939 a grass runway, internal roads, car parks and electrical power and lighting were set up. The inaugural flight from Dublin took place on January 19, 1940 to Liverpool. In 1940 work began on a new airport terminal building. The terminal building, opened in 1941, was designed on the bridge of a luxury liner and was awarded the Triennial Gold Medal of the Royal Hibernian Institute of Architects. Services were severely curtailed at Dublin Airport due to World War II, however, afterwards three new concrete runways were built and completed by 1947.
Throughout the 1950s Dublin Airport expanded with virtually uninterrupted traffic growth. Runway extensions and terminal enhancements were carried out to deal with the influx of traffic and passengers. New airlines began serving the airport also. These included British European Airways, Sabena and BKS. In 1958 a new transatlantic service was started by Aer Lingus via Shannon Airport. During the 1960s the number of scheduled carriers continued to grow and aircraft continued to evolve with technological, advancement. By the close of the sixties, a sizeable number of Boeing 737, BAC1-11, Boeing 707, Tridents and Boeing 720's were using Dublin Airport on a regular basis. By 1969 1,737,151 passengers travelled through Dublin Airport.
The advent of wide-bodied aircraft posed opportunities and challenges for aviation. 1971 saw Aer Lingus take delivery of the gigantic new Boeing 747. To cope with this a new passenger terminal capable of handling five million passengers per year was opened in 1972. Increases in passenger numbers throughout the seventies were far from impressive as in earlier decades. This was partly due to the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, and two energy crises which sparked off a major worldwide economic recession. These situations did nothing to help the already troubled Irish aviation scene.
Throughout the 1980s regular daily services to/from Dublin were started from the regional Irish airports including Kerry Airport, Galway Airport, Sligo Airport and Derry Airport. Major competition, especially on the Dublin-London route, resulted in passenger numbers swelling to 5.1 million in 1989. In 1989 a modern 8,650-foot runway and a state-of-the-art air traffic control centre were completed. Dublin Airport continued to expand in the 1990s. New piers were added to the existing terminal building with new air bridges increasing capacity even more. In 1993 the United States-Ireland bilateral agreement was changed allowing airlines to operate direct transatlantic services to/from Dublin Airport. However, airlines must provide an equal amount of flights to Shannon Airport as well as Dublin Airport.
Like all airports across the world, Dublin Airport has felt the direct effect of the September 11th atrocities. Security, which has always been a high priority, has been heightened. There is a serious decline in transatlantic travel, and the plight of airlines throughout the world gives cause for concern. However Dublin Airport Authority is endeavouring to deal sensibly and reasonably with these challenges and is committed to meeting the demands of for air travel into the future. Overcrowding and undercapacity is a major problem at Dublin, the existing terminal building, is simply too small to deal with the numbers of passengers that use it. Both the Irish Government and the former Aer Rianta have come under fierce attack from the airlines, principally Ryanair, who are calling for a second terminal to be built.
In 2004 it was announced that the proposed Pier D development would not go ahead as planned. Instead the Minister for Transport, Séamus Brennan, announced that a new terminal was likely. Ryanair has submitted proposals to build its own terminal, however, the airline's chief executive has an antagonistic attitude towards the Irish government which has the final say in the matter. Plans are also in motion for the break-up of Aer Rianta. This would mean that the airports at Cork and Shannon would be separate from Dublin Airport. However, Dublin Airport would inherit the debts of the other two. On 1st October 2004, Aer Rianta was renamed Dublin Airport Authority in preperation for this break-up. However it will be May 2005 at least before Cork Airport and Shannon Airport become separate entities.
Airlines and Destinations
The Dublin-London intercity air route is the busiest in the EU, with over 4.4 million passengers per annum.
The following scheduled airlines use Dublin Airport (at January 2005):
- Aer Arann to Cork, Donegal, Galway, Isle of Man, County Kerry, Knock, Sligo
- Aer Lingus to Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin Schoenefeld, Birmingham, Bologna, Boston, Bristol, Brussels, Budapest, Chicago (O'Hare), Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Faro, Frankfurt, Geneva, Glasgow, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Liverpool, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Lyon, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Milan (Linate), Munich, New York (JFK), Nice, Orlando, Paris (Charles de Gaulle), Prague, Rome (Fiumicino), Shannon, Tenerife (Reina Sofia), Toulouse, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Washington/Baltimore, Zurich (services to Bilbao, Dubrovnik, Hamburg, Jersey, Lisbon, Marseille, Milan (Orio Al Serio), Naples, Sevilla and Valencia are due to start in March 2005)
- Air Baltic to Riga and Vilnius
- Air France to Bordeaux and Paris (Charles de Gaulle) (Paris flights operated by CityJet)
- Air Malta to Malta
- Air Southwest to Bristol (service to Newquay to start in April 2005)
- Air Wales to Cardiff, Norwich and Plymouth
- Alitalia to Milan (Malpensa) and Rome(Fiumicino)
- American Airlines to Boston, Chicago (ORD)
- Transavia to Rotterdam
- British Airways Citiexpress to Derry City, London Gatwick and London Heathrow
- BMI British Midland to London Heathrow
- BMI Baby to East Midlands
- Cityjet to London City and Malaga (Operates Paris flights on behalf of Air France)
- Continental Airlines to New York (Newark)
- CSA Czech Airlines to Prague
- Delta Air Lines to Atlanta
- Estonian Air to Tallinn
- Eurocypria Airlines to Paphos
- Euromanx to Isle of Man
- EUjet to Kent International (Manston)
- Finnair to Helsinki (service to resume in Spring 2005)
- FlyBE to Exeter and Southampton
- Germanwings to Cologne/Bonn
- Hapag-Lloyd Express to Hamburg and Stuttgart
- Helios Airways to Larnaca and Paphos
- Iberia to Barcelona and Madrid
- Lithuanian Airlines to Vilnius
- LOT Polish Airlines to Warsaw
- Lufthansa to Frankfurt Main
- Luxair to Luxembourg
- MALÉV Hungarian Airlines to Budapest
- Ryanair to Aberdeen, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Bristol, Brussels (Charleroi), Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley (Teesside), East Midlands, Edinburgh, Faro, Girona, Glasgow (Prestwick), Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, London Gatwick, London Luton, London Stansted, Malaga, Manchester, Murcia, Newcastle, Paris (Beauvais) and Reus
- SAS to Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm
- Swiss to Zurich
- Thomsonfly to Doncaster/Sheffield (service to start in April 2005)
- US Airways to Philadelphia
External link
- Dublin Airport (http://www.dublin-airport.com)
- Dublin Airport Authority (http://www.aer-rianta.ie/)
- Flying In Ireland Website (http://www.flyinginireland.com)
- Getting to and from Dublin Airport (http://www.dublintourist.com/travel_info/dublin_airport/)
- Air Traffic Control from Dublin (http://audio.liveatc.net:8012/eidw.m3u)
See Also:
| Airports in Ireland |
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Belfast City | Belfast International | Cork | Derry | Donegal | Dublin | Galway | Kerry | Knock | Shannon | Sligo | Waterford |