Examination of Witnesses (Questions 320
- 325)
WEDNESDAY 19 JANUARY 2005
MR BRIAN
AMBROSE, MR
ALAN YOUNG,
MR BRIAN
CARLIN AND
DR CHRIS
LUNDY
Q320 Mr Pound: Is there not a relief
road currently being built? Is that an aspiration rather than
a firm commitment?
Mr Carlin: No, there may well
be one that is currently being built. Alan might able to give
us some more on that, but it is certainly not in place at the
moment, and I know that the trip from Dublin Airport to Dublin
City Centre at times of the day can be quite difficult.
Q321 Mr Pound: And, presumably, the
fact that the train service takes about two hours, I believe?
Mr Carlin: It does, but I think
the greatest upgrade of the whole system between Belfast and Dublin
has been the introduction of the toll road from Dundalk basically
to Dublin Airport joining the M50 outside Dublin.
Mr Ambrose: If people assess it
on total journey time—if you are flying you usually have
to check in an hour or so before your flight, then you have the
flying time—it is quicker to jump in the car and drive,
and that is going to become easier as we end up with a dual carriageway
all the way from Belfast to Dublin.
Q322 Mr Pound: Following on from
that, you were so generous with your time when we met you that
I cannot remember whether the following point was mentioned in
casual conversation as we climbed up viewing towers or whether
it was in the formal evidence session, but the question of leakage
of passengers was mentioned. Have you done any analysis to produce
some statistics to analyse the numbers and the reasons why passengers
from the Republic are using the north and vice versa?
Mr Ambrose: We have not done any
analysis ourselves. We have heard figures banded around, but we
have never seen anyone quantify what the figures are based on.
I think the honest position is the airport has enjoyed significant
growth over the last decade and a lot of our time has been spent
planning for and catering for that growth, so we have not been
in a position where we have been looking at other sectors to see
how we can grow even faster. There are undoubtedly people, including
myself, who are using the services from Dublin as direct services,
but I have not seen anything verging towards scientific reasoning
as to how many or why, apart from anecdotal type evidence that
people would give.
Q323 Mr Pound: I am sure you are
basing your decision on scientific reasoning. I am just wondering
whether you have any anecdotal evidence, if there is not any empirical
evidence, as to what the passenger preference input to the equation
is here. You have talked about the difficulties of getting from
Dublin Airport into Dublin, and we all know the wonderful convenience
of getting from Belfast City into the City of Belfast, but are
those the predominant factors or are you aware of any others?
Mr Ambrose: I think the predominant
reason for flying out of Dublin is the greater range of direct
services than you would have from any of the Belfast airports.
For example, our headquarters is in Madrid: you do not have an
option of flying direct to Madrid; you can either interline through
Heathrow or drive down to Dublin and take a single flight. The
business reason for going to Dublin is a very wide range of direct
services. Even if it is one a day, it suits our purposes. On the
charter market, which is another reason that people are going
south, sometimes it is more cost-effective that the same holiday
package out of Belfast is cheaper out of Dublin, and that is probably
to do with the size and the critical mass and their ability to
be more competitive because of the vast amount of flights in the
summer going from Dublin to Palma on a daily basis verses the
more modest market in the north. It can be price-driven primarily
in the charter market or the range of direct services in the case
of most of the business market.
Mr Pound: That is very helpful. Thank
you very much.
Q324 Chairman: I am not sure how
sophisticated your customer database is, but it would be fascinating
to know, if it was allowable, where your resident Northern Ireland
customers are coming from and what is the furthest point from
which your commuter based customers are travelling. Is that something
you would look at?
Mr Carlin: It is somewhat dated
now, but the last CAA passenger survey would certainly show that
we would be pulling people on occasion from the various counties
on the southern side of the border, but it is a relatively small
number of our total passengers, and that could easily just be
a factor. There may be factors, such as ease of access from parts
of the southern counties. It would be easier to get to Belfast
than to Dublin. It could be price and it could be a destination
perhaps that we serve that is not served from Dublin. We have
great difficulty in getting, as Brian mentioned, any figures from
the Republic of Ireland. The CAA are meticulous about figures
that they produce. Basically, anything that we want or anything
that we could want will be available with the CAA archive.
Q325 Chairman: Perhaps we could search
out some answers to that question, not just in respect of Belfast
City, but Belfast International and the City of Derry as well.
It would be interesting to see where the passengers are coming
from. Gentlemen, at the start of the meeting I said that much
of our questioning could be repetitive given that we have met
before, but we are grateful for the fullness of your answers.
It is good get those on record. Can we once again thank you both
for the hospitality at your end and also for travelling to be
with us this afternoon. I am sure you will still be able to meet
your return flight, and it should not be late, weather permitting.
On behalf of the Committee can I thank you for taking the time
to be with us.
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