Ryanair's O'Leary rejects Horseleap airport plan

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has branded the proposed airport at Horseleap "a complete waste of money". Midland Airport Development Ltd intends building an airport between Tubber and Horseleap, with the longest runway in Ireland. They have held pre-application consultations with An Bord Pleanála, but no planning application has yet been submitted. In the interview with the Westmeath Independent's sister paper, the Westmeath Examiner at Ryanair HQ in Christmas week, Mr O'Leary said that he couldn't see the proposal going ahead, "nor should it". "Ireland is a small country with a population of four million people. "Bristol has one airport: it has a population of ten million people. Within two hours of Bristol, there are ten million people. Ireland simply can't support [another airport]," he said. Pointing out that Ireland already has eleven airports, Mr. O'Leary said that the idea that the country needs another one, in the midlands, when most midlanders are less than an hour from Dublin airport, or less than an hour from Shannon made no sense. "By any measure, if you're within two hours of an international airport, that's it: there's no room for another international airport there," he said. In a week when most of Europe was suffering severe flight delays due to hard frost, snow, and freezing fog, Mr. O'Leary also said that there was a practical reason why an airport in the Horseleap area did not make sense: "The weather record in the midlands is very poor," he said. "Like the fog: we get pretty bad fog five months every winter. The best place to put an airport is on the coast. You don't get the frost and you don't get the fog.