Over the past few years, Dublin Airport has consistently been one of Europe’s fastest growing airports, and the airport is now at the 30 million passengers per annum level. Supporting this growth has been one of the major aviation fuel initiatives taking place in Europe over this time.
Dublin Airport has expanded its aviation fuel storage capacity by the construction of 3 new tanks totalling 15,000 m³ to replace a small and under-invested facility remnant from the oil industry presence at the airport.
In addition, parts of the airport are being provided with hydrant fuelling for the first time – clear support for the expanding number of long haul routes from Dublin which now include the Middle East and Far East, in addition to several established routes to North America.
Key to the aviation fuel operations plans of daa (Dublin Airport Authority) has been the implementation of Open Access fuel supply. In the case of Dublin, this means that any fuel supplier who meets certain technical and commercial qualifications, has the right to bring fuel to the airport and have it stored and delivered to their customers’ aircraft in return for a fee or tariff. Fuel suppliers have no other commercial obligation towards the fuel operation at the airport apart from to pay the fee – they do not need to invest in, or hold shares in the fuel farm or any operating consortium.
daa achieved this by tendering a Design, Finance, Build, Operate Transfer (DFBOT) concession to the open market. This resulted in the appointment in 2016 of an independent DFBOT Concessionaire – responsible for investing in and upgrading the aviation fuel infrastructure and implementing Open Access fuel supply. Since this time, Open Access fuel supply has been ramping up – the signs are that competition to supply fuel to airlines has increased and the number of fuel suppliers wishing to supply fuel will continue to increase.
As a result of its unique experience in delivering Open Access fuel supply at both Bangalore and Delhi international airports, and John Pitts’ own experience at the first, largest and most successful Open Access airport at the time (Hong Kong), daa appointed eJet as its Aviation Fuel specialist for the procurement of the DFBOT concessionaire.
eJet’s scope of work involved compilation of the DFBOT tender package (including specialist input into the various agreements governing the opportunity), tender evaluation and review of design and construction at key points in the project. In order to bring necessary in-country project management skills to the assignment, eJet found a good partner in RPS Group.