Building an airport in Tubber would be insane says Ryanair chief O'Leary

An airport in the midlands would “serve no pupose”, and to provide one would be “insanity”, according to Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary.

Speaking at a business breakfast event in the Mullingar Park Hotel last Friday, Mr O'Leary said that Ryanair would not fly to airport proposed for Tubber.

One reason why developing an airport in the midlands would be insane was the weather, he said.

“The weather here in the midlands early in the morning and late in the evening – we do live in the middle of a bog and I know we sometimes get a bit upset when people call us ‘bogmen’ but nevertheless we do live in a bit of a bog in the general midlands.

“If you are up early in the morning, as I am, I’d say for about 40 per cent of the year I’m driving through a pea soup to get to Killucan or Kinnegad to get on the M4, and sometimes in the evening.

“The further away you go from the sea the more prone you will be to fog and adverse visibility,” he said.
His second reservation was that the location proposed was just 90 minutes from Dublin airport, and any international airport has a two-hour catchment area.
“So an airport in the midlands,whether it’s Abbeyshrule or some crazy site down in Tubber... it will never get off the ground. It’s called the ‘midland airport development’ – ‘MAD’ – for a reason.”

Mr O’Leary said that despite a population of just 5 million, we have 15 international airports. “It’s a joke,” he said, stating that Bristol has a population of 15 million people in its environs, and just one airport. “We have too many airports,” he stated.

“It should be dispensed with because it is truly mad.”

Asked later by journalists if Ryanair would fly into Tubber airport, he responded “No”.

“It’s a crazy idea. Anybody putting their money into an airport in Tubber is going to lose,” he said.