The Irish Aviation Authority has ruled that Dublin Airport’s price increases do not comply with European regulations
Ryanair submitted a complaint in December 2023, stating that Dublin Airport’s +11pc price increase did not meet EU pricing regulations and their environmental incentives were ineffective
Ryanair complained that daa failed to provide an effective environmental scheme, leading Ryanair to move greener aircraft to other EU airports
Ryanair has called for Dublin Airport to scrap discriminatory price increases and implement effective environmental charges, urging Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to remove the 32m traffic cap that limits growth and increases air fares
Dublin Airport responded to Ryanair’s complaints about alleged lack of transparency in the airport charges process, citing adherence to annual price caps and extensive consultation materials.
Ryanair accuses Dublin Airport of ignoring questions and excluding consultation comments in its decision-making process, leading to a breach of transparency requirements.
Ryanair claims proposed passenger transfer charges discriminate against point-to-point airlines, while alleging discriminatory practices in the runway movement charge and nitrogen oxide charge.
The IAA draft decision, upholds Ryanair’s complaints, indicating the need for Dublin Airport to reassess charging modulations with transparency, relevance, and objectivity in mind, although no immediate retrospective adjustments are proposed.
Ryanair’s Eddie Wilson said: “this is the latest daa cock-up having repeatedly failed to plan for security queues, peak summer car parking, or removing the 32m traffic cap, and they have now failed to comply with EU regulations in designing environmental incentives. This IAA ruling is great news for Irish citizens/visitors who are being forced to pay some of Europe’s highest airport fees at Dublin to fund the daa’s €3bn gold-plated CAPEX programme, which includes unnecessary vanity projects which deliver no benefits for passengers, such as its €250m tunnel to nowhere when its traffic growth is capped. We call on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to instruct the daa to immediately scrap their discriminatory price increases and instead focus their efforts on scrapping the 32m traffic cap before thousands of Irish passengers/visitors are blocked from travelling at the October school mid-term holiday or from coming home for Christmas because of this artificial traffic cap which was imposed in 2007 (almost 20 years ago) because of concerns about road access to Dublin Airport which no longer apply. If the daa had a competent management or a competent Transport Minister, this 32m traffic cap would and should be scrapped to allow Irish tourism to grow and create new jobs while the application to lift this traffic cap is being processed.”
The DAA said: “DAA is firm in its belief that the 2024 annual charges review was undertaken in an objective, transparent and compliant manner – evidenced by the fact that no other airport user has issued a complaint on the 2024 airport charges process or decision. It is disappointing that Ryanair is challenging DAA’s efforts to encourage the deployment of a quieter, cleaner and more fuel-efficient fleet at Dublin Airport through the roll-out of charges that would help to deliver on our sustainability objectives and ensure best practice airport operations.”
