Airlines will boost seats on Dublin Airport flights this summer after the High Court stalled efforts to enforce a controversial 32 million a-year passenger limit there pending a ruling from Europe.
Dublin Airport breached the limit in 2024, when 33.3 million people passed through its terminals and it expects growth to continue this year, barring a dip in numbers to the end of March, according to Kenny Jacobs, chief executive of DAA, the airport’s State-owned operator.
Mr Jacobs noted that airlines sought more take-off and landing slots at Dublin after the High Court put a stay on the cap pending a ruling by the European courts on key legal issues raised by the planning condition.
“Ryanair and Aer Lingus have filed for more slots in 2025, charter operators have filed for more slots,” he said, adding that US and Middle Eastern carriers were also likely to bid for extra capacity at Dublin for this summer.
He calculated that this would increase passenger numbers this summer by one million, meaning that the airport will once again exceed the limit, imposed by planners in 2007 to ease fears of traffic jams on the roads leading to there.
“But that does not mean that the cap does not exist,” Mr Jacobs cautioned. He stressed that DAA needed the limit lifted, either by the courts or the planning process.
The State company recently sought permission from Fingal County Council, the airport’s planning authority, to handle 36 million people a-year, which it can do “without building anything”, according to Mr Jacobs.
He was speaking before Fingal said it had declared this application invalid late on Tuesday.
That followed its December 2023 application to extend the airport’s facilities to allow it handle 40 million people a-year.
DAA believes that any planning decision on will face appeals, making it difficult to predict the timing of a final ruling.
The Court of Justice of the European Union could hear the case in 12 months, making the legal process the most likely means of resolving the row.
Cork and Dublin will handle 39 million passenger this year between them, up from 2024′s total of 37.7 million.
DAA has asked Aer Lingus to weigh Cork-New York flights using new jets designed to cut long-haul travel costs, according to Mr Jacobs.
He said the airport operator hoped Aer Lingus would base one of its new Airbus jets, capable of flying long and shorter distances, at the Republic’s second biggest airport.
This would open the door to transatlantic flights from there, including to New York. Mr Jacobs said that DAA had raised this with Aer Lingus, but the airline told the company it had first to receive the new aircraft before deciding on where to operate them.
The Airbus A321 extra long range (XLR) jets that Aer Lingus is due to receive this year are built to cut the cost of long-haul flying. The carrier intends using them to boost its transatlantic business, a key source of revenues and profits.
DAA aims to increase numbers at Cork Airport from more than three million last year to five million. “Cork is the fastest growing airport in the country,” Mr Jacobs noted.
Aer Lingus said in response that it had “concluded that transatlantic services from Cork Airport would not be operationally or commercially viable”.
The airline said that it had assessed the potential for these services and found there would be significant payload restrictions on passengers and baggage.
Meanwhile DAA said that it planned go ahead with a new sound insulation grant scheme for up to 400 homes around Dublin Airport, increasing the amount available to each by 50 per cent to €30,000.
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