Dublin Airport operator DAA could have moved faster to avert the looming passenger cap crisis at the national aviation hub, Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin has told a conference in Dublin.
The State company applied to Fingal County Council in December 2023 to raise the 32 million-a-year upper limit on the number of passengers allowed to travel through the airport to 40 million. But the application has been hit with series of delays and a decision has been pushed out to an indeterminate date.
In the meantime, DAA said last month it expects to exceed the cap by around one million passengers this year, putting it in breach of planning law and prompting the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to make fewer slots at Dublin Airport available for airlines this winter and next summer.
In an onstage interview at the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) conference in Dublin on Wednesday, broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald asked the Minister whether DAA could have moved faster to avert the crisis.
“Well, it does sound like that’s where the delay happened – in the submitting of that planning application, which was nothing to do with Government but the DAA,” Ms Martin said. “So that’s an unfortunate thing and now we are living with that.”
Speaking to reporters outside the conference, the Green Party TD said regional tourism balance is the solution to the crisis. She said there are “no capacity issues” at regional airports such as Shannon and Cork and that the “dispersal of tourists” to regional areas would be a “win win”.
Ms Martin said she is “acutely aware” of the importance of air connectivity to the Republic’s economy. However, she said: “I would also recognise that there are no capacity constraints in our regional airports. And I think aside from, even if there wasn’t a cap in Dublin Airport, we should be really focusing on regional tourism.”
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary earlier this month poured scorn on the suggestion there is enough demand for inbound flights to regional airports to make up for the loss of extra slots at Dublin Airport.
But Ms Martin said she understands research has shown that 34 per cent of inbound tourists “are going west” when they arrive in the Republic. “It’s the marketing of that to show the viability of Shannon and Cork as places to arrive in,” she said.
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