Airlines are preparing to axe flights at Dublin Airport amid a row over its 32 million a year passenger limit while a recent An Bord Pleanála draft ruling could hinder efforts to lift the controversial cap.
Planners limited Dublin Airport to 32 million passengers a year in 2007 as a condition of allowing its operator, State company DAA, to build a second terminal there. As a result, airlines will have to cut the number of seats available to passengers flying in and out of Dublin by an estimated one million next year, meaning a likely squeeze during the peak summer months.
Ryanair, one of Dublin’s two biggest operators, confirmed that it cut routes last winter, and only reinstated a handful of them this summer.
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The services include Spanish routes Asturias, Castellon and Santiago, Carcassonne in France, Leipzig and Nuremberg in Germany, Palanga in Lithuania, and Romania’s Sibiu and Suceava.
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The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) recently proposed limiting airlines at Dublin Airport to 25.2 million seats next summer to ensure they do not exceed the overall 32 million limit.
Aer Lingus, also a key airline at Dublin Airport, said it was “continuing to assess the impact of the IAA’s draft decision reducing capacity for summer 2025″. The carrier added that it would take part in the consultation on the proposal.
If that consultation confirms the 25.2 million limit in the coming weeks the authority believes there will be “little if any” scope to offer new take-off and landing slots to airlines at Dublin next year.
Industry insiders say passengers will have few new routes to choose from next year as the cap has already stalled airline plans to add to existing services from Dublin Airport.
One noted that airlines will cut frequencies on routes, particularly those where they have multiple daily flights, squeezing capacity and pushing up fares. And sources warn that the controversy has long-term implications, as airlines “plan years in advance”, so will rule Dublin Airport out of future expansion until the limit is extended or lifted.
This month’s An Bord Pleanála draft decision on aircraft noise limits at Dublin will hit efforts to have Fingal County Council planners increase the passenger cap.
The planning board’s draft decision proposes limiting night-time flights at the airport to 13,000 a year, a nearly two-thirds cut on the 36,000 such flights that Dublin handled in 2023.
DAA said at the weekend that this will “complicate” its efforts to meet a November 15th deadline to provide extra information to Fingal County Council on an application the company filed last December seeking to have the passenger cap lifted to 40 million.
The company also noted that it added complexities to its proposal to seek interim permission from Fingal to raise the cap to 36 million while the council considers last year’s application. DAA added it was “working through the detail” of both problems.
The travel industry is increasingly concerned about the impact the controversy is having on businesses and the Republic’s reputation as a holiday destination. “The overall view is that this is a political problem and it’s politics that will ultimately resolve it,” said one observer.
This story was updated on September 30th to correct that Ryanair cut routes last winter rather than the coming October to March period.
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