The Dublin Airport operator, daa, was denied permission by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to purchase a large disused car park near the airport, citing concerns about potential increased prices and decreased service quality for consumers if the deal went through.
The CCPC’s investigation determined that daa purchasing the car park would eliminate competition in Dublin Airport’s public car parking sector, giving daa a near monopoly on parking spaces and potentially leading to higher prices without the need for competitive pricing or service improvements.
While the car park deal could have offered 6,122 parking spaces to passengers, the CCPC found that daa responding to competition pressure from the car park in the past had resulted in discounts and promotional campaigns for consumers, actions that may not be necessary in a near-monopoly situation.
The land is owned my Gerry Gannon and was opted by John O’Sullivan through a firm called ParkFly. The property then became the subject of a legal dispute between Mr Gannon and Parkfly, as well as another company controlled by Mr O’Sullivan. The car park closed during the Covid-19 pandemic in September 2020 and came on the market in 2022 with a guide price of €70m.
Kenny Jacobs said the daa “did all it could over the past 13 months to satisfy the CCPC including offering to give up as a remedy one third of the spaces to a third party. It is baffled by the CCPC view that it buying the facility would have led to car park prices increasing. It would have the opposite effect, as is the norm in supply and demand economics. As always, our advice to the public is to book early. At the same time, we will continue to promote the alternative travel options available, including an average of more than 1,000 bus departures from the airport every day – all while frustrated passengers pass by the QuickPark facility which remains empty.”
