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DUBLIN AIRPORT WILL likely exceed the 32 million passenger cap this year, its operator has warned.
After a busy August, terminals passenger numbers are trending 5.5% ahead of 2023, and this trend is forecast to continue into September.
Over 3.46 million passengers went through the terminal doors of Dublin Airport last month, making it the busiest month ever in Dublin Airport’s 84-year history.
Between May and August, over 10 million passengers passed through the doors of Dublin Airport. This brings the total number to 22.7 million passengers so far in 2024.
The airport’s operator, daa, said today that it has made “extensive efforts” to reduce passenger numbers to comply with planning including the removal of airline incentives at Dublin Airport, and the launch by Cork Airport of a new scheme to encourage airlines to move seat capacity from Dublin to Cork.
“However, based on current forecasted passenger numbers to year end, Dublin Airport’s terminals passenger numbers in 2024 will exceed the 32 million planning condition.”
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Chief Executive of daa Kenny Jacobs admitted they “should’ve tackled the cap sooner”.
“We should’ve applied for planning sooner. We need to move quicker, and we will learn from that ourselves.
“The central issue is about planning and the speed at which planning moves in Ireland, and it’s about the lack of joined up thinking on critical national infrastructure.”
Last May, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) announced that it would be imposing a Passenger Air Traffic Movement (PATM) seat cap of just over 14.4 million passengers in Dublin Airport during the period commencing on 27 October 2024 and ending 29 March 2025.
Daa, as well as airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus, are to bring the IAA to the High Court over its decision.
It is claimed that the decision is legally flawed and should be set aside.
The grounds of the airline’s challenges include that in arriving at its decision the IAA acted outside of its powers, outside of its jurisdiction, has acted irrationally.
It is also claimed that the IAA has failed to give proper reasons for its decision, and has breached various constitutional rights of the airlines, including their property rights.
A dampening of passenger numbers is expected from late autumn as a result of the IAA’s winter slot decision. This reduces the number of seats airlines flying into Dublin Airport can offer to passengers between November and March.
Some airlines operating at Dublin have also decided to reduce the scale of their operations because of the uncertainty with the 32 million terminals passenger cap.
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It’s quite simple. Start letting the majority of us who don’t wish to have to drive up to Dublin instead use Cork or Shannon. Cork used to fly to Berlin and to Krakow directly for example…but now it’s daily from Dublin. The Cork flights were always full but for some reason we’re stopped. I’m tired of the passenger cap story… All those can be diverted to the west and south west. DAA needs to get this in their heads, I guarantee a quarter of those people flying don’t even want to be anywhere near Dublin airport…
@Roman Walczak Sadlowski: It is the airlines that decide which airports they want to use.
@Roman Walczak Sadlowski: Why is there a passenger cap? Surely a cap on the amount of landings/departures would be a better way of enforcing a cap rule. If the cap rule is in place owing to noise, movements, etc… surely a plane with 200 passengers V a plane a quarter full is making pretty much the same amount of noise/movements…
@Laois Weather: fair point I suppose..
@Laois Weather: the cap is a condition of T2s planning permission and the infrastructure back then. It relates to people getting to and from the airport. As the infrastructure has been upgraded the cap as it stands is not for purpose and is outdated. The current infrastructure can accommodate it’s busy summer passenger numbers. It can therefore easily handle autumn and winter numbers. Winter restrictions are nonsense.
@Roman Walczak Sadlowski: Airlines don’t want to fly into those airports in many cases. That’s why they go to Dublin airport. Realistically the cap of 32m will have to be expanded.
@Roman Walczak Sadlowski: Airlines decide where to fly from and base their aircraft. The DAA are facilitators. It’s more profitable to fly from Dublin because aircraft are consistently fuller and they can turn the aircraft around for the next flight faster. The people from the West/South need to get into their heads that the airlines are not local service providers, they are in business to make profit. And the most profit is made out of Dublin. If they could make more from the other airports they would fly from there, you can bet your house on it. They know the catchment areas of the airports, the populations they serve and the loads they can expect. It’s nearly down to a money making science with them which is unfortunate for populations around the smaller airports.
@Roman Walczak Sadlowski: Airlines decide what’s what not the gov, not the DAA or the IAA.
@Laois Weather: When were you last on a plane that was one quarter full?
What was the point in building a new runway if they can’t grow passenger numbers. Tourism is extremely important to the Irish economy and if airlines can’t get slots to come here,tourists will go elsewhere. Most international airport’s increase passenger numbers year on year. Lift the cap. And I live near the airport, plane’s going over every few minutes, I hardly even notice them.
@Gerard Carey: Forcing people to travel up to 4 hours in some cases to fly out of this country is a joke. I recently stayed a week in West Cork. Over a four hour drive from Dublin (I also live near the airport) and it’s a b1t#h of a drive, then expecting the same people to drive the same 4hr drive home afterwards when there is a perfectly good airport in Cork and Shannon… the DAA need to reassess their thinking..their is other cities in this Island beside Dublin..
@James Hayes: it’s not the DAA, it’s the airlines,the load factors aren’t high enough to turn a profit all year round,or in a lot of cases even seasonal.
@Gerard Carey: this is true. Bit of the give the airlines a capitation grant it would make it more attractive and this can be signed off as regional development
@Gerard Carey: It’s not just passenger-carrying airlines that use the airport. A second runway assists in facilitating cargo traffic in addition to passenger airlines.
@James Hayes: No one is forcing anyone to drive up to Dublin to catch a flight. But if you can’t find an airline that serves your local airport to where you want to go, then you need to find an airport that will offer the routes you need.
Remember, it’s not the airport or governments fault if an airline wants to operate a specific route or not as the case may be.
@James Hayes: You’re not forced to do anything. You choose to go to a holiday destination that is accessible from Dublin and not Cork/Shannon. DAA can’t force airlines to fly from Cork or Shannon. Those airports are not as profitable as Dublin for basing their aircraft so they choose not to base them there!…… You could fly from Cork to London and then on to another destination and it would save you the car journey
@James Hayes: DAA don’t control SNN
The number of flights out of all the other airports is too low. I’m from munster yet have to use Dublin. Flights to Europe and UK should be improved out of Cork, Shannon, Kerry, Knock and what about Waterford. Promised government investment that had never come. The answers are there already, clear as day. As usual the government don’t want to know. I don’t understand. Sure let’s cap Dublin, but not have alternatives. Am I missing something here?
@sean oneill: yes! People want to travel to Dublin Airport. Not Cork or Kerry or Belfast. If I wanted to fly to Mallorca I’m NOT going to fly to Madrid and then make my way by train and a boat. I can see where you’re coming from. Yes I would be handy for you. But tourists want to fly into Dublin and see and visit places on their travels from Dublin.
@Brian k.: You are making Seans point.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Flights to/from Cork, Shannon, Knock are too expensive compared to the same route from Dublin.
@sean oneill: like everything else limits are put in place with no alternative options.
Close power plant with no replacement wind, wave or solar plants developed or in place.
Close local hospitals with no pre advanced development of a&e services or bed capacity.
Close peat bogs to protect the environment but importation from eastern Europe and Germany is allowed despite the increased carbon foot print.
@sean oneill: Yes, you are missing something. Airline profit. They go where they make the most money, where their aircraft are not sitting on the ground and are in the air earning for them, full or nearly full……You need to lobby the airlines directly, the DAA can’t force them to fly from Cork (who the DAA manage), or Shannon (independent from the DAA). Don’t think the govt can force airlines to fly where they don’t want to either unless they give them a subsidy.
@sean oneill: The gov can do F all, airlines are a business at the end of the day, they decide what airport they fly into and on their terms
@Brian k.: a lot of passengers want to drive the Wild Atlantic Way or if they are Game of Thrones enthusiasts see the Giants Causeway. Yours is a typically simplistic Dublin centric viewpoint where Ireland ends at Newlands Cross. Why would tourists want to be accosted by drugged up thieves in the North inner city or be ripped off in Temple Bar. If the DAA drop the charges into Cork Airport for example, the airlines have said so …
DAA acting like it’s out of their control. I suppose why wouldn’t they since there doesn’t seem to be any consequences for them violating their planning conditions. If it was Joe soap violating planning conditions you can be pretty sure Fingal Co Council would issue a planning enforcement notice
@Atlas Collapsed: There needs to be very real consequences for breaches.
Fine DAA a multiple of whatever they earn for each passenger over the limit.
@Atlas Collapsed: 100%
They got planning with certain conditions, which they clearly accepted at the time because they went ahead with the expansion.
Now they want to row back on the conditions.
Its not ok for the avg Joe to do this and it certainly shouldn’t be ok for DAA.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Doubt they’ll care about that. They are semi state. They pay tax and dividend to the state. Fines will also go to the state
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: They care about their revenue, with which they pay their staff – including magerial saleries – and operating expenses.
If their normal income was €10 per passenger, and they were fined €20 per passenger over the quota, you would soon find that they do care.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: good luck getting that type of fine in. Especially for an outdated cap based on old infrastructure. Court challenges would follow. Egg on the face for everyone and wasted money. Would be a total mess….. €176 million profit last year. More on the way this year… Doubt they’d care too much about relatively small fines if they are fined. Maybe about the PR, although they’re shameless.
Somebody must stay in control.There cannot be unlimited planes and passengers arriving at the airport.Otherwise we have a free for- all sole purpose being to increase profits.Safety is the priority in my view.
@Willie Marty: what has safety got to do with with the number of planes landing?
@Michael Ryan: what do you think?.The same as too many cars on the road.
@Willie Marty: only worse with multiple casulties.
@Willie Marty: We have ATC for that!
@Laois Weather: ?
@Willie Marty: Air Traffic Control?
@Laois Weather: heavy workload as it is.
@Willie Marty: yea but what if every A321 was now a A330? A re you saying landing a A330 is less safe
@Willie Marty: The cap is nothing to do with passenger safety. It’s to do with the road capacity around the airport back around 2007
It’s so ridiculous having a cap of 32 million. Airline companies are going to pull out of Ireland because of this cap. Increase it to 60 million and then they can revisit the situation in the future. We have road infrastructure in place now so let’s get on with progress and keep our economy strong.
@Brian k.: Its so ridiculous having a minimum wage. Companies will pull out of Ireland because of this.
Its so ridiculous having safety regulations. Companies will pull out of Ireland because of this.
Its so ridiculous having working time directives. Companies will pull out of Ireland because of this.
Its so ridiculous having pollution controls. Companies will pull out of Ireland because of this.
@Brian k.: No, Dublin Airport does not have adequate road access or public transport access at all. That is part of the reason the cap is set to where it is. I’m not even convinced the airport has the terminal capacity to exceed the cap by much as the terminals are constantly heaving throughout the working day.
The airport urgently needs a larger more efficient midfield complex with brand new motorway standard access roads (none of this very Irish chuck a traffic light on a roundabout which impacts half a dozen roads in the area), heavy AND metro rail access and new wider ring road around Dublin which will also access the airport.
Alas one can dream!
@T S: I agree with some of your points absolutely. Now that we have three lanes of traffic on our M50 traffic coming too and from the airport IS better than it was 15 years ago. Along with more motorways getting widened we can deal with today’s traffic a lot. We have taxi’s and busses that both serve the airport on a regular basis. Yes a metro and a Luas tram would also make a huge difference to transport to the airport. We can do it, but putting a cap on passenger traffic is not the way forward.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: you need to pull yourself together!
@Brian k.: you’re getting excited. But there is always that chance they will pull out of Ireland.
@Brian k.: But we can’t raise the limit by much until much of what Iv said is addressed. The access roads to the airport are awful and have a very damaging impact on the local area (swords resident here). The M50 is simply not suitable, just look at the tailbacks from the M1 to the M50 junction and then further down towards Blanch and the Red Cow, all daily serious pinch points. The access road off the M1 to the airport is constantly bumper to bumper up to the Airport Roundabout.
And don’t get me started on public transport. No, we don’t need a Luas, we need the already planned Metro North from swords to the city center AND a mainline rail station served by DARTS (or better yet regional services to other cities also).
The total lack of foresight over the years has led us to this cap.
@T S: yes I agree. Transport in Dublin is dreadful!
@T S: The busiest time to access the airport is between 4am and 7am as the departure rush of flights is between 6am and 9am. Is that the times your gridlock is referring to?!?! Because I sail by Blanch prior to 7am and the M1 looks fine unless a crash or bad weather…… Or are you referring to general rush hour traffic times?!?! That traffic would be there regardless……. The roads can handle the airport traffic during the peak summer season and at its busiest times then they can handle it outside it. This cap was brought in before the M50 was 3 lanes. There were also far less busses serving the airport.
Passenger cap is set by the lugs in Fingal Co. Co. They have no interest in how many people come in or go out. They are throttling tourism.
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: Awww!
Are hoteliers whinging again?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Hotels are doing great, the taxpayers of this country are paying for half the rooms at present
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: I was at Coldplay the other night and the same people, ah the noise, I can’t hear myself think, my 3 month old daughter is constantly crying, I can’t sleep, why did they move near a stadium? Same with the airport, they chose to live there knowing full well about the noise and the environmental impact. I don’t give a toss regardless.
Or bring the tax on aviation fuel in line with other fuels. The most carbon intensive form of transport is not taxed, I’m sure the price increases would have a knock on effect on the numbers using the airports… Alternatively how about lavaling the playing field by reducing the tax on other fuels
@Martin G: Aw so you want to reduce numbers flying by increasing taxes on fuel thereby driving the price to a point where only the rich can afford to travel. Just like it was forty years ago.
A wet week in a leaky caravan in Ballybejaysus is good enough for the plebs while their betters lounge on the beaches of Porta Banus after arriving on their thousand euro flights.
@Martin G: Another Green Party supporter. They said Ireland would be under water by 2010 because of climate change, guess what? We’re still here baby. The WEF are the best sellers, they would sell you anything you want to believe. Not doubting climate change is not real but I think a lot of it is fear monger BS, the very same people including the cabbage patch Regularly fly first class to the UN and the world economic form in Switzerland and the climate change conference. And don’t speak about their private jets
Thats my point… Green taxes are just a revenue stream, but if we’re sirious about making changes for climate sake not taxing Ave gas kind of makes a joke of the hole thing.
When the planning application for Terminal 2 was determined by the planning authority the road infrastructure in the vicinity of the airport and the main approach roads to the airport were very inadequate. Thus, the passenger cap was imposed. The reasons for the cap being imposed are no longer extant and it should be lifted. Dublin Airport is single the most valuable piece of state infrastructure in existence. It should be developed as far as possible to maximise returns. I live in rural Ireland. I would much prefer the ease of using Ireland West or Shannon airport over Dublin. Problem is – there is no meaningful public transport to any Irish airport other than Dublin. The real blame for the lopsided infrastructure in this country lies with the gombeen governments we give ourselves.
@Minnie Mouse: for a certain amount of meaningful, because public transport to Dublin airport is just buses, it more than urgently needs at least LUAS access and also a proper train station for DARTs, regional and InterCity trains
Dublin, Dublin, Dublin. There’s more to this country than fecking Dublin although you’d be hard pressed to realise that reading the Journal
@FoxyBoiiYT: Well apparently there is not as you don’t have adequately used airports.
@FoxyBoiiYT: Dublin is the life and soul of Ireland. It’s the capital city. If Dublin falls the rest of the country will suffer even more
I’ve had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday through Friday plane PG 13
Tourist should pay a fee coming in like other countries
@its so unfair: Is it not expensive enough on them when they get here already?
You’d make a great Green Party/FG minister: Just tax it.
@Laois Weather: Clearly not expensive enough.
Doesn’t the DAA set the charges for the airlines that use the airports? Surely it would make more sense to make it cost effective for airlines to have some routes out if Cork/Shannon at peak times! This ould chestnut of tourists choose to fly into and stay in Dublin is bs, they have no choice in some cases but to fly into Dublin. The transport infrastructure to and from dublin airport is still not as it should be. Im flying to prauge end of the month and flying out of Dublin, return flights from Dublin 200euro, return flights out if cork 380euro.
@James Brennan: DAA have zero jurisdiction over airlines
As far as Government are concerned Ireland doesn’t exist beyond the Red Cow – so they will keep feeding the monster that is Dublin. Working out really well for those paying €2,000+ / month to live in a shoebox, that’s if they’re not commuting a couple of hours each way to work.
MICHAEL O’LEARY IS STILL ON HIS HOBBYHORSE ABOUIT DUBLIN AIRPORT.MY ANSWER IS THAT SINCE MICHAEL ‘LEARY DOES NOT LIKE DUBLIN AIRPORT HE SHOULD GO OFF AND BUILD ”RUINAIR AIRPORT.I DID A SURVEY OF LANDINGS AT DUBLIN AIRPORT ,ONE AFTERNOON OVER A TWO HOUR PERIOD AND MY FINDINGS WERE AS FOLLOWS; RUINAIR = 39 FLIGHTS AND OTHER AIRLINES CAME OUT WITH 41 FLIGHTS MICHAEL YOU SHOULD LOOK AFTER HIS COUNTRY COUSINS AND START USING GALWAY AND WTERFORD AIRPORTS WHO WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO SERVICE YOUR FLIGHTS (AT LOWER LANDING FEES) WHICH YOU ARE ALWAYS COMPLAINING ABOUT. AND YOU COULD ALSO GRAZE YOUR VALUABLE CATTLE ON AIRPORT LAND.
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