Ryanair has renewed its call on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan and Tourism Minister Catherine Martin to issue a Letter of Direction to the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA)
instructing it to issue additional slots at Dublin Airport.
Ryanair said this call – which would safeguard Lapland, Leinster rugby, 6 Nations, Cheltenham and Christmas flights – comes as the IAA drafts a proposal to cut Dublin Airport traffic by 1 million passengers in summer 2025, “which will damage traffic, connectivity, and tourism on the island of Ireland and lead to much higher air fares.”
Ryanair believes the IAA does not have the legal power to force airlines to abandon any of their existing slots at Dublin.
Ryanair said: “While the DAA has submitted its planning application to Fingal Co Council to scrap the outdated and irrelevant 2007 traffic cap of 32 million passengers, Ireland’s Transport Minister has the legal power to issue a Direction to the IAA instructing them to approve additional slots at Dublin while this planning proceeds. Sadly, because Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, and his colleague Green Tourism Minister Catherine Martin, have failed to act, Dublin Airport is facing the real threat of fewer flights and higher air fares because these 2 incompetent Green Ministers are not up to the job. While they stand idly by, flights, tourism and jobs are being lost at Dublin Airport to Belfast, Italy and Poland. Already this year, Ryanair has switched 3 aircraft from Dublin to Reggio Calabria in Italy and Wroclaw in Poland, and from Nov extra flights which have been planned for Dublin Airport are switching to Belfast International because of Eamon Ryan’s inexplicable failure to issue a Direction Letter to the IAA.”
Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said: “We have been calling on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to exercise his legal power to issue a Direction to the IAA to approve additional slots for Irish, American, and other overseas airlines. Sadly, he prefers inaction and waffle to solving problems. Thankfully he will leave office at the next Election, when we hope a competent Transport Minister and a competent Tourism Minister, will then take action to deliver Ireland’s aviation policy, which calls for growth in connectivity, and traffic at all Irish airports including Dublin.
“Because these two Green Ministers sit on their hands doing nothing, Dublin Airport is losing flights – not to Shannon and Cork, but to Belfast, Italy and Poland. The Transport Minister has the legal power to issue a Direction Letter to the IAA to approve slots at Dublin Airport, but he has inexplicably failed to do so, which is in breach of his own aviation policy. We hope the next Election will remove these Green Ministerial failures from office and allow an incoming Government to deliver additional slots at Dublin Airport, which will spur a decade of growth in traffic, tourism and jobs on the island of Ireland, and put an end to Green’s failure in Irish aviation/tourism when Ministerial inaction exported Irish traffic and jobs to other EU airports solely because Eamon Ryan won’t sign the attached letter.”
