Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary
Michael O’Leary says Ryanair would have placed four additional aircraft in Dublin in the summer of 2024 but will instead grow routes elsewhere because of the passenger cap.
None of 80 new routes Ryanair plans to operate this summer will include Dublin, he said. Cork will get one new route and the airline is planning to grow at Shannon and Knock.
The airline chief said Ryanair is considering mounting a legal challenge to the planning restriction that places an upper limit of 32 million on the number of passengers who can travel to and from Dublin Airport in a year.
But Michael O’Leary said any court action would be slow and sought more immediate action from Government to either temporarily suspend the Dublin cap or pass legislation to overturn it, which would in effect have to remove airport capacity from falling under the planning authority of the local Fingal County Council.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan and Tourism Minister Catherine Martin should let the airport grow or ‘go’ from office, he said.
The outspoken CEO has repeatedly called for Mr Ryan to act on the issue and to engage with Ryanair, using increasingly emotive language. Mr O’Leary denied his campaign was abusive or amounted to personal insults at a press conference in Dublin where he displayed pictures of the two Green Party ministers in ‘dunces’ caps.
He would change them to ‘genius caps’ if the ministers act on the issue, he said.
A Dutch court last year threw out a passenger cap at Schiphol Airport in the Netherland imposed by the Dutch government. The court found the process through which the limit on access to travel was imposed had been incorrect.
In Dublin, Michael O’Leary said the combination of a cap on travel and increasing demand as the population rises, will lead to higher fares for passengers in the coming years, if restrictions are not eased.
He said DAA, which operates the airport, was using the squeeze on its service to increase fees.
Meanwhile, Ryanair faces its own constraint on growth as a result of delays in delivery of new aircraft from Boeing. As few as around 40 of 50 new planes due for delivery by June are likely to arrive because of well-documented manufacturing hold-ups at Boeing, he said.
The undersupply of planes is likely to lead to a cut back of some advertised services, potentially meaning fewer daily services on some busy routes during the peak summer period.
