Residents Blast £20m Derry Airport Expansion Plan

February 11, 2004

Residents Blast £20m Airport Expansion Plan
Belfast Telegraph, UK


CLAIMS that a £20 million expansion of City of Derry
airport will bring investment and jobs to the North
West have been branded "ludicrous".

Speaking at a recent meeting to discuss the extension
of the airport, a number of residents backed by a team
of supporters from across the North West said that
there was nothing to prove investment had been helped
by the airport throughout its 20 years history. 

Chairing the meeting, environmental Alliance
representative Eamonn McCann said: "They keep saying
that we will become a backwater if this airport closes
or if we backout of this extension.

"Nobody has given any proof of this.

"We lost 400 jobs recently at Desmonds. Many other
jobs at other companies have gone and others are under
threat. 

"Is somebody suggesting that they come here because
Ryanair is running two flights in and out of Derry
each day? 

"These companies look for cheap labour and a willing
workforce, not airports."

Residents' spokesman Ciaran O'Brien also asked that if
the intention was to privatise the airport, why was
the council intent upon throwing £20 million of public
money at it beforehand. 

Mr McCann said that there was growing concern
throughout Europe that low fare airlines were "riding
roughshod" over peoples' rights to live in their
homes. 

"When you have a major multi-national company crushing
ordinary citizens, there is something very wrong with
that," he said.

Mr McCann claimed that the whole "low cost" industry
was based on a massive fraud.

"One of the questions that sticks in peoples' minds is
where does the money come from.

"Another is how do they do that - that's absolutely
astonishing!

"It's quite simple - the ratepayers and taxpayers and
the users of other forms of transport are paying all
over Europe.

"Just as there's no such thing as a free lunch, there
is also no such thing as a free flight."

Mr McCann said that the airlines were getting
everything on request to the detriment of investment
in other infrastructure. 

"When it comes to the airlines, it is what do you want
sir?"


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