Airport Celebrates 70th Anniversary
Monday, 25 January 2010 13:14 Dublin Airport celebrated 70 years in operation on the anniversary of the first commercial flight on 19th January, 1940. The airport was officially opened, when an Aer Lingus Lockheed 14 aircraft departed Dublin for Liverpool. Collinstown Airport, as it was known then, had just one flight a day to Liverpool. Just over 248 million passengers have travelled through Dublin Airport since that first flight took off in 1940. The architect of the then, new terminal building, was Desmond Fitzgerald, an elder brother of former Taoiseach, Dr. Garret Fitzgerald. The curved building was designed to echo the lines of the bridge of a great ocean liner and won many architectural awards for its design. By 1947, flights departing from Dublin ventured as far as Europe. New concrete runways were completed in 1948, and in 1950, after ten years in operation, the airport had been used by 920,000 passengers. Local man, Denis Murray from Kinsealy, has worked at the airport for the past 34 years. His service with Aer Rianta, as was, now DAA, started in Shannon in 1969. He then moved to Dublin in 1976 and has held a number of positions at the airport. He is currently manager in the Health and Safety department. In his time there, he has seen many developments, most notably the opening of a new, updated terminal(T1) in 1972. He is now about to witness the latest major development, namely the opening of the much awaited Terminal 2 (T2). Affable Denis told the County Leader, “I have seen many notable events at the airport in my time. Prominent among these has to be the visit of Pope John Paul in 1979, as well as various US Presidents”. Golfing enthusiast, Denis, a member of Beaverstown Golf Club, also fondly recalls the arrival of Concorde with the victorious Ryder Cup team in 1995. In his time he has seen security change dramatically from a more laid back approach to the present day intensity of searches. Security staff has increased from 120 to 600 at present in this time. It is quite clear that sport loving Denis is very happy to be still involved with the many imminent changes in the pipeline. |
