Car parking at Dublin airport is sold out for some days in the peak summer period and “all options to add spaces have been exhausted”, according to a presentation prepared by DAA for TDs and Senators.
Representatives of DAA, the operators of Dublin airport, are to appear at the Oireachtas Committee on Transport on Wednesday. DAA’s presentation for the committee says “demand is high” and “supply is tight” for parking at the airport and that “passengers need to book early”.
It adds: “Some days in peak summer are already sold out,” and says: “All options to add spaces have been exhausted.”
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The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) overruled DAA’s intended purchase of the nearby former QuickPark on the grounds it might hand it a parking monopoly and raise prices. DAA said at the end of March that it would not be appealing the competition regulator’s decision to block its purchase of the former QuickPark facility.
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It said at the time it “made the decision following careful review of the CCPC’s judgment and in the interests of getting the facility’s 6,200 spaces back on the market for passengers in time for summer”.
In May The Irish Times reported that there was a possibility that the DAA could rent the QuickPark facility to ease its summer parking problems. It was understood that the airport authority made a number of approaches to the owner about such a lease arrangement but that no deal has yet been reached.
Asked if this was one of the options to add spaces that had now been exhausted, a DAA statement said it “will address the car parking situation at Dublin airport in further detail at tomorrow’s [committee] session”.
The presentation for the politicians also notes that “car parks need planning permission”. The DAA statement did not say if it intends to make a planning application for another car park to serve Dublin airport.
DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs is due to appear before the Committee on Transport alongside Gary McLean, the managing director of Dublin airport, and Niall McCarthy, the managing director of Cork airport. The purpose of the meeting is for TDs and Senators to be updated on how the Cork and Dublin airports are preparing for summer 2024.
The presentation also says that both Cork and Dublin airports are ready for the summer period with 1.2 million passengers expected at Cork and more than 10 million in Dublin between May and August.
It says: “DAA continues to work with the IAA [Irish Aviation Authority] as slots regulator and our airline customers to manage capacity at Dublin airport and keep within the current cap of 32 million terminal passengers.”
DAA last year applied to the local planning authority, Fingal County Council, to have the cap lifted to 40 million.
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