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MICHAEL O’LEARY HAS said the price of a one-way fares between Dublin and London could cost up to €500 this Christmas due to issues arising out of the controversial passenger cap at Dublin Airport.
Fare increases could continue into next summer if the cap at Dublin Airport does not change and allow for a higher volume of planes to arrive and depart from the location, he added.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One this morning, the Ryanair boss said a number of times that he believed Transport Minister Eamon Ryan was “incompetent” and called for Taoiseach Simon Harris to intervene to make the change.
The change he, the airport operators DAA and a number of other stakeholders are looking for is an increase to the 32 million passenger cap at the location or for it to be totally scrapped. There is hesitancy to do so over emissions concerns.
Fingal County Council are in charge of planning permission for the cap, but the Government can step in on occasion.
The DAA has previously said that it is considering an application for Dublin Airport to be recognised as strategic infrastructure, in order to bypass planning permission procedures from Fingal.
Recently, Ryanair and Aer Lingus also recieved permission from the High Court to challenge the passenger cap.
Dublin Airport has been operating at capacity for some time and, as a result, airlines are not guaranteed that the ‘slots’ – or flight times. Airlines apply for these slots and Dublin Airport award them accordingly.
Some airlines argue that the cap is impacting their businesses as a result, as the airport cannot award every slot that is applied for.
DAA management have previously said that the delay in JetBlue, an American airliner, entering the Irish market was because there were not enough slots left to make operations profitable in Dublin.
O’Leary, the budget airline chief, said it does not make sense to him that the Government invested in a second runway at Dublin which he believes will go underused if the cap remains in place.
He called the passenger cap “ridiculous” and “idiotic” and lashed out against Minister for Transport Eamonn Ryan over the rule.
Challenged that Ryan intervening would overrule planning laws and result in higher emissions, O’Leary said evidence exists that the airport can handle more than 32 million passengers per year and that the restriction is not a law, but a limit.
He claimed that Ryanair’s planes emit less emissions and that there would “only” be around a 25% increase in emissions if the cap was scrapped.
O’Leary said: “Dublin Airport has opened a second runway now. There’s capacity there for 50 or 60 million passengers a year.
“The industry could double traffic coming and going from Dublin Airport. And remember, 50% to 60% of this traffic is inbound, it’s visitors coming here, sustaining jobs in hotels.
“The Government is talking about raising the minimum wage in the hotel and hospitality sector – the only way you’re going to pay that is to deliver additional growth but the Green minister doesn’t want to do anything,” he added.
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The usual total exaggeration on his part! It will never reach €500 each way. Ryanair will find a way to cap it at €499.99, you’ll see.
@Patrice Ahern: That would be the pricing level of the end 1980s.
@Patrice Ahern: Ryanair boss is full of cr@p.
Even 10.000EUR!!! Michael, there is so much more anger that could be created, such as by not letting Families sit together and have them pay for their seats. Unethical business owners unite!!!
People will just take a ferry or fly with the cheapest airline. They will have to reduce fares to fill seats or they will be flying empty planes.
@S Os: if the passenger cap is as bad as O’Leary says, there won’t be any planes to fly anyway
@Jerry LeFrog: thats whats wrong he has,nt enough planes.
@S Os: who are the other airlines that will not be impacted by the cap?
@Thomas Linehan: he has more than enough planes for these needs. He just won’t be able to put on extra flights
@You’re Not Serious: Ryanair have been carrying the number of passengers limited by the current cap for a long time, and not charging €500.
And Boeing has been unable to provide Ryanair with the planes they ordered to expand their routes.
So he’s just behaving like a female dog because he can.
Who’s Michael kidding? People only go through the ordeal of flying Ryanair because they’re cheap.
@John Fagan: hardly an ordeal now.
@John Fagan: I think the point is that around Christmas time there is huge demand for flights, particularly from the UK, for the Irish abroad to come home for Christmas. There is a nonsense restriction on the number of flights allowed in and out of Dublin airport to stay under the passenger cap which was never there before. This means Ryanair AND Aerlingus won’t be able to run their usual winter schedules….. It’s supply vs demand. Both airlines will be expensive during Christmas, so book early!…. Take a bow DAA and FCC!!!!
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: the cap is there for the people who bought a house next to an airport and now dont like the noise
@John Fagan: absolutely incorrect. While they may be cheaper (not by much anymore ) it most certainly isn’t an ordeal.
@he didnt take the 120k because he already got it s: The cap is there as part of T2s planning permission from 2007 relating to road infrastructure to the airport. The roads have been upgraded and there is no issue, even during the peak times during the summer months. The current cap is not relevant anymore as the reasons for it don’t exist….. Nothing to do with noise and the new runway
Climate, pollution, energy autonomy – aren’t we supposed to be trying to fly less?
@Jessie Pinkman: You can add USA to your list.
@Jessie Pinkman: Those 4 countries combined produce around 415 times the amount we do yearly. They happen to also have a combined population of 640 times what we have.
I’d rather be on the side of being for cutting back and calling them out, than just shrugging the issue off by not setting an example.
@Jessie Pinkman: China and India together are just under three billion people, a little under 600 times our population. So if they’re only producing 365 times as much pollution as we do then we are way worse per head and that is what really counts.
China is building solar, wind and nuclear plants at an impressive rate.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith:
So what is the incentive to have newer greener planes?
We live on an island, getting on and off make air travel kind of essential.
Saying that, if this increases flights to Shannon and Knock, happy days… Dublin Airport kidnaps people for 2-3 hours to extract money before you allowed to leave the country.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: as well as coal plants
@Jessie Pinkman: oh Jessie. Show us how clueless you are in one message.
@jak: They went too easy on the carbon taxes!
@ben wu: you can do all the cutting back for the rest of us ‘not bothered’ yourself!
@Jessie Pinkman: If going to use worldometer, you can sort the list by per capita. China is 24th while Ireland is 37th.
@Jessie Pinkman: No place investing more in going green than China atm.
@jak: “nothing happened “ apart from massive energy efficiency gains, concerted international action to cut emissions of gases that were damaging the ozone layer, and legally-mandated cuts to sulphur dioxide emissions that were causing acid rain.
@Thesaltyurchin: They produce around 80% of all solar panels globally, and have something like 40% of the global energy production via solar.
That solar energy is still pretty low in comparison to their totals though. Somewhere around 600GW out of about 10PW.
Certainly still a lot of work to be done there, here, everywhere.
A peeve of mine is how many decry those countries emissions, while using so many cheap stuff like fast fashion etc that’s made there.
The restrictions on air travel for ordinary people begins, incrementally.
Many other airports in Ireland that could do with some business.
@Tom O’Hanlon: Airlines would base their aircraft in them if it was profitable….. Doesn’t appear to be
Government should invest in reopening Waterford Airport
@D: there’s already plenty of roads to let people leave
O’Leary and Ryan should just settle it over an old fashioned bare knuckle boxing match. Winner takes all
@Gavin Lynam: Or a bit of the wrestling in baby oil
@orb7eckn: Should be making oil from babies, not in this day and age!
@orb7eckn: I think killing babies for their oil is a step too far. Maybe use endangered whale oil instead?
@orb7eckn: Ryan is already too slick, no need for more oil
I’ll believe it when I see it Michael, I’d say it’s more likely you’re speaking out of your hole as per usual
He said the same thing about this summer and they are having to do sales now
Boundless mass tourism is the solution. Oh, wait..
Why not upgrade Baldonnell Military Airport?, the shared military and civilian airport is very common around the world!
@Brian Hunt: Military need to agree, longer runway needed, alot of money needed, intersecting approaches with Dublin when arriving from the West, conflicting departures with Dublin when departing to the West, a lot of South Dublin won’t be happy with being overflown low level from Dalkey all the way in, high ground to the south of the approach to runway 28 which means if aircraft need to be broken off the approach that will be very tricky with approaches into Dublin to the north of it…… There are plenty of reasons why it’s not a good idea!
@another one? Nothing wrong with planning for short hop eVTOL’s aircraft coming down the line. Plus they should start thinking about short haul flights to regional airports around the country. Start the infrastructure now, it won’t be long
@Temp Stuff: Imagine the damage the toe rags will do with an eVTOL….. They would be nice to have around though
@Brian Hunt: because then I will be complaining about the noise.
Currently I can’t hear anything from Rathcoole :-)
No harm at all to clean up the polluted sky. Too much gallivanting hither, thither and yon on sun holidays, when people should be out footing turf in the bog and in the Fields.
He’d say anything to get his own way!
Breaks his heart to do it!
Cap or no cap, they would try anyway
@Dominic Leleu: Not true, there hasn’t been a cap till now, has there been €500 flights to London with them before?!?! So they haven’t tried!!!!….. More nonsense
What a spoofer he is. They better call his bluff. Lying toad
Scrap the cap!
€1000 round trip to London. He won’t have anyone on his planes then. You can get the boat and train for €55.
@John Moore: Do you think we’re back in 1984 instead of 2024, boat and a train, about 7 hours at least and that’s without a hitch, 50 mins on the plane, I wouldn’t pay €1000 but I would pay a lot more than €55. Anyway, Cork or Shannon to London will be a lot cheaper than Dublin, if they don’t lift the cap at Dublin airport.
Why not use Shannon Airport?
‘Better buy a ticket now before the prices go up!’
Didn’t they announce their seat sales were way down a few weeks ago? This must be a coincidence and not a sales tactic….Upstanding and never underhand company like Ryanair would never do something like that…
One million dollars ah hahaha
Michael O’Leary needs to stop scaremongering people and abide by the law, Ryanair are abusing the planning permission provided for the northern runway thus causing a massive noise nuisance to up to 30k residents of Ashbourne, Ratoath, Coolquay,The Ward, St Margaret’s…..etc..About time the DAA do their jobs and make the airlines abide by planning permission granted.
@Scott Milne: Do you not think, this was all part of the DAA plan re the second runway, get it over the line planning wise and once it’s built go back to try and changes the arrangements granted at the planning stage. The DAA should hand over the airport in waterford to Ryanair and let them make it a profitable airport, and the DAA shoukd make cheaper for airlines to operate out of Cork, booked a trip to Prague for September, 230 euro return out of Dublin, but to fly out of Cork it was close to 380. The DAA are trying to control the market so they can get the cqp on dublin lifted, which will have a huge knock on affect for the other airports in this country. The line that the DAA want to have Dublin airport classed as a strategic peice of infrastructure says it all, they knew the only way to get the second runway was to agree to the adjustments and then go back to get it changed after it was built and in operation.
Lot of people can’t see through what’s playing out, this is Ireland, you need to see the three card trick here. The Dunce head Minister makes lots of noise, won’t intervene or make a decision though & sits on the fence. Then the operators are left to their own devices, the use the useless Minister as a smokescreen, blaming everyone across the board, they then team up with all the Carriers & form a Cartel, charging top dollar to Joe & Josephine Soap. They make mega profits out of the charade & the ordinary punter pays the price. Fuel, Energy, Insurance, Groceries are all prime examples of it. The Fuel & Insurance sectors/Cartels are masters of the three card trick, Irish people are being fleeced by Cartels as Govt & Regulators sit idly by.
Take the ferry with your car and fill up in Duty Free!
Makes sense for people on their dole holidays too!
Knock will make a fortune in donations.
Fly EasyJet ex Belfast to Gatwick for peanuts anytime.
Pure lies.
If the market doesn’t work for Ryanair, they’re free to GTFO
Usually old nonsense from O’Leary, never going to happen.
People here moan about the Govt and then moan about Ryanair moaning about the Govt. Now I’m moaning about the moaners moaning about Ryanair moaning about the Govt. It’s a moan fest.
If the airport on its busiest week during the year can have x amount of passengers why can’t that value be applied to each week and they then have a total for the year.
Must be Michael’s tom
.. are not guaranteed that the ‘slots’ – or flight times. Are what? I really wish those writing some of these articles would proof read them and finish sentences where necessary.
Fly by the seat of your pants; just saying.
Ferry. Book now for Xmas.
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