Ireland aviation update 1

[Aquarious]

Dublin Airport has submitted a planning application to create a new dedicated viewing area for the public to watch planes take off and land on the airport’s runways.
This has been reported in several reputable Irish media outlets and confirmed on the Dublin Airport website.

The proposed Aircraft Observation Facility will be located on the site of the current informal airport viewing point on Old Airport Road, locally known as "The Mound". The site is fully owned by Dublin Airport.

The facility will provide a comfortable and safe space for the community to view aircraft movements, with a clear view of the south runway (10R/28L) and the crosswind runway (16/34) at Dublin Airport.

Facilities will include a dedicated car park with 22 parking spaces (including two spaces for people with reduced mobility and two dedicated family spaces), bike parking, and an elevated covered platform with seating. The facility will be fully lit, with power provided by solar panels located on the site.

According to Gary McLean, Managing Director of Dublin Airport: "Aircraft observation facilities are a feature of airports around the world. As well as providing a plane-spotting platform, the facilities also create an interface between the airport and the local community, helping aviation enthusiasts to engage with the airport by observing aircraft movements and airport operations. This location has been an informal 'plane-spotting' area over the past 40 years, and we think it's time to put a more formal facility in place. It's a rite of passage for kids in Dublin to be taken to 'The Mound' to watch the planes landing and taking off at the airport. This new facility would make it safer and more enjoyable for users and we think it’s a facility that the local community will enjoy.

No delivery or opening date has been confirmed at the time of writing.

[FarnboroJohn]

Do they intend to charge for parking?

[Aquarious]

There was no mention of any charges in the press release however its safe to assume that there will be a charge for electrical vehicle charging, which will also be provided.

My feeling that this is both a safety and security initiative to encourage people not to park along the roadside and/or the airport perimeter. whatever the answer I see it as a positive move , especially as other airports have removed or stopped providing such facilities.

[Optimistic Spotter]

What a refreshing attitude.

[FarnboroJohn]

There was no mention of any charges in the press release however its safe to assume that there will be a charge for electrical vehicle charging, which will also be provided.

My feeling that this is both a safety and security initiative to encourage people not to park along the roadside and/or the airport perimeter. whatever the answer I see it as a positive move , especially as other airports have removed or stopped providing such facilities.

Are they providing facilities at each end of whatever runways exist or is it just one, and do they intend to ban parking along roadsides, which in most circumstances is perfectly safe (and legal until someone risk-averse or of a controlling or even vindictive nature decides after a hundred years of nothing, that it isn't)?

[Aquarious]

the press release only relates to one end of the runway, and there's no mention of banning roadside parking, however my guess is that these things tend to start off in a positive way and often have an ulterior unmentioned motive, or it may even have been a condition of the planning approval, again not mentioned. However, lets take the positives out of this and maybe other airports will take note and follow suit.As I understand it Dublin used to have a viewing area in the old terminal, way before my time, so lets see this as progress and not second guess what may or may not happen in the future, no one foresaw a disaster on the scale of 9/11.

[FarnboroJohn]

the press release only relates to one end of the runway, and there's no mention of banning roadside parking, however my guess is that these things tend to start off in a positive way and often have an ulterior unmentioned motive, or it may even have been a condition of the planning approval, again not mentioned. However, lets take the positives out of this and maybe other airports will take note and follow suit.As I understand it Dublin used to have a viewing area in the old terminal, way before my time, so lets see this as progress and not second guess what may or may not happen in the future, no one foresaw a disaster on the scale of 9/11.

I don't suppose anyone saw the 747s colliding in the Canary Islands coming either but let's be perfectly clear about this, there hasn't been an air disaster in over a hundred years of aviation that was attributable to Reginald S. Potter. However, authorities taking irrelevant actions and messing up perfectly legal hobbies to distract from their own incompetence or irrelevance or look after commercial or class interests has a long and dishonourable history!

A benevolent authority is more than sufficiently unlikely to give one a reason to get out one's longest spoon.