Situated just north of Dublin City, Dublin Airport (Aerfort Bhaile Atha Cliath in Irish) has seen massive growth in passenger number over recent years. Spurred on by the Celtic Tiger economic boom which allowed Irish people to holiday more in foreign countries, the numbers flying through Dublin Airport have increased massively.

Ten years ago passenger levels were around 7 million. 17 million people travelled through Dublin Airport in 2004 and while in 2005 18.4 million people travelled through the airport which was the 14th consecutive year of passenger number growth at Dublin Airport. Amazingly passenger numbers travelling through Dublin Airport have grown at a rate of 1million passengers per year.

In an ideal world, Dublin Airport would have continuously adapted and expanded to keep up with these amazing numbers. Unfortunately now, Dublin Airport is an airport that is ill equipped to deal with these numbers. Today, conditions at Dublin Airport are less than ideal when compared with airports around the world which are adapted and planned to deal with expanded passenger numbers. Rather than an intelligent forward looking planning process for the expansion of Dublin Airport, it seems to be reactionary.

Passenger opinions for Dublin Airport are almost unanimous in their criticism for the airport. Where as other airport around the world are spacious and clean with modern equipment, Dublin airport seems to be very outdated. Part of the problem for Dublin Airport is that it has confined itself in on a postage stamp size of land which has meant expansion difficult if not near impossible. While Dublin Airport?s future may be rosier, there is no doubt that in its current state it is unsuitable for the purpose it is serving.

Ronan Menton is the webmaster for a number of travel related websites and has been for some time in Ireland, associated with search engine optimisation in the Irish travel industry. He spends two months a year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and now sees it as his second home. Among the many sites he is currently working on are the following: hotels in Galway and hotels in Cork.