RYANAIR has blasted a proposal by Ireland’s aviation regulator to limit capacity at Dublin Airport next summer to 25.2 million seats.
The budget airline warned that the move with result in “fewer flights & higher fares” for Irish families looking to head away.
In a draft decision issued today, The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has proposed implementing a seating capacity of 25.2 million seats during the summer period at Dublin Airport, which runs from the end of March to October.
The Dublin Airport passenger cap was imposed in 2007 by An Bord Pleanala as a planning condition for the DAA’s development of Terminal 2.
It had been expected that the IAA would limit capacity as Dublin Airport has reached the cap of 32 million passengers a year, which is allowed under existing planning permission.
Following the draft proposals release, Ryanair bosses blasted Transport Minister Eamon Ryan for “inaction” and warned his “failure to act” will hurt Irish tourism.
The budget airline called on the Transport Minister to issue a direction letter to the IAA, “ordering them to approve additional slots for Dublin airlines in Winter 2024, and again in Summer 2025”.
Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said: “It’s time for Eamon Ryan’s inaction and incompetence to end. Ryanair has drafted a simple direction letter to the IAA, which Minister Ryan can issue tomorrow morning, and which would allow Ryanair and other airlines to add extra flights this Winter for Leinster Rugby matches, Lapland Santa Claus flights, and for Irish families returning home to Dublin at Christmas.
“Minister Eamon Ryan keeps dodging this issue, falsely claiming that there is ‘nothing he can do’. As usual, Eamon Ryan prefers to do nothing rather than solve transport problems.
“We now call on An Taoiseach Simon Harris to intervene in this matter and demand that Eamon Ryan issues a Ministerial Direction to the IAA to approve additional slots for Dublin’s airlines this Winter, and again in Summer 2025. This will allow the DAA the time and space to use the planning process to scrap this idiotic 2007 traffic cap.
“If Eamon Ryan won’t put Irish transport and Irish tourism first, then he should resign his Ministry and allow somebody competent to do the job.
“Alternatively, An Taoiseach Simon Harris should intervene and insist that the Government issues a Ministerial Direction to the IAA to allow Dublin Airport to continue to grow while the DAA and Fingal CoCo go through the planning process to scrap this idiotic 17 year old traffic cap.”
The IAA has already placed a seat cap of 14.4m for the winter season, which begins at the end of October and runs until March.
The combined seat capacity for both seasons is higher than the passenger cap as it takes into account how many passengers are expected on each flight relative to the total number of seats on the aircraft and an adjustment for transfer passengers.
“Minister Eamon Ryan keeps dodging this issue, falsely claiming that there is ‘nothing he can do’. As usual, Eamon Ryan prefers to do nothing rather than solve transport problems.”
Michael O’Leary
The IAA said today in a statement: “To take account of the capacity constraint represented by this planning condition, the IAA proposes to implement a seat capacity limit of 25.2 million seats for the Summer 2025 scheduling season.
“This is in line with the proposal outlined by DAA, the operator of Dublin Airport, during the deliberations of the coordination committee, in which DAA also stated that the IAA should have regard to the condition.
“The members of the coordination committee include Dublin Airport and the air carriers using Dublin Airport, and the committee is tasked by the Slot Regulation with providing proposals and/or advice to the IAA.
“The IAA anticipates that the demand for slots for the Summer 2025 scheduling season would significantly exceed the proposed seat cap. This proposal would result in very little, if any, available capacity for new slot requests, or for ad hoc slot requests, for passenger flights using the capacity of Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 during the Summer 2025 scheduling season.”
Decision review
The proposal was welcomed by the DAA, which is now reviewing the details of the draft decision.
Commenting, CEO Kenny Jacobs said: “DAA welcomes the IAA’s draft decision as Dublin Airport cannot comply with the 32-million cap next year without this significant reduction in passenger numbers. The details of the draft decision are being reviewed.
“But we totally get that losing significant seats from the summer 2025 schedule has real consequences for airlines, people working at the airport and the travelling public, as well as knock-on impacts on tourism, jobs and the wider economy. Absolutely no one wants that, but we are between a rock and a hard place.
‘Ireland issue’
“This issue is no longer just an airport or a planning issue, it is now an Ireland issue. Tourism figures released this week show visitor volumes falling in every region of Ireland, and airlines are allocating aircraft to other countries where they can grow.
“We welcome efforts by the government to find a solution to the impasse while we wait for planning to lift the passenger cap to 40 million a year, which is in line with national aviation policy, the Fingal Development Plan and the Dublin Airport Local Area Plan. Until this happens, we have to support the IAA’s draft decision to cut seats despite the consequences for Ireland.”
The DAA added that the winter 2024/25 cuts did not go far enough to prevent terminal passenger numbers in 2024 from exceeding the 32 million planning condition.
They have asked the High Court to intervene, and the case will be heard on December 3.
