Mr O’Leary claimed that the DAA says its costs are rising and will then seek permission to levy higher passenger charges in coming years, despite having agreed to the payoff.
“My biggest beef with it is that we – the airlines and the customers at Dublin Airport – should not be asked to pay an extra €1.2m in costs because the board of the DAA are having a row with Kenny Jacobs,” said Mr O’Leary.
Mr Jacobs is embroiled in a boardroom battle with the DAA that could see him leave his role in January with the payoff. It would represent about three years’ pay for the CEO, who is almost three years into a seven-year term. However, the agreement still needs to be approved by Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien and Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers.
Mr O’Leary said while Mr Kenny has “knocked heads together” at the DAA, he has been paid well to do so.
“I do have nothing but sympathy for him, being messed around by both Fingal County Council and the third division dopes at the Department of Transport,” added Mr O’Leary.
But he criticised the manner in which the DAA has been submitting planning applications to the local authority.
He claimed the company seemed to be “all over the place” in terms of its planning submissions.
“I don’t think the DAA have done a particularly good job on planning over the past three years, while Kenny is there, and I don’t think they’ll do a good job on planning after he’s gone, either,” added Mr O’Leary.
However, the DAA has always insisted that it has robust procedures in place to ensure the submission of quality planning applications.
“We also partner with highly experienced planning, environmental and legal consultants to ensure our applications robustly meet the requirements of the planning system,” Mr Jacobs noted earlier this year.
“The big issue for us is not so much the planning,” added Mr O’Leary, adding that the broader use of Dublin Airport’s second runway and the passenger cap are much bigger problems.
He criticised the government for so far having failed to address the passenger cap – which limits annual passenger numbers at Dublin Airport to 32 million – despite having made a pledge to do so in its programme for government.
While Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien has said he intends to bring forward legislation soon to remove the cap, Mr O’Leary said that “we have nothing done for nine months”, despite the government having a 20-seat majority.
While Mr O’Leary insisted he’s “not a big fan” of Kenny Jacobs’ track record as the chief executive of the DAA because he hasn’t pulled plans for a €200m tunnel that will be built under Dublin Airport’s airfield, he also praised the executive for his work during his time at Ryanair, where he was chief marketing officer.
He said Mr Jacobs is “as good a CEO of the DAA as you’re going to get”.
Mr O’Leary was speaking as Ryanair – which is Dublin Airport’s biggest airline customer – said it will have a record schedule from the gateway this winter. It will add one aircraft for the season and operate 96 routes, including a service to Rabat in Morocco. It will have 35 aircraft based at Dublin for the season.
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