Minister of State at the Department of Transport James Lawless has issued a statement saying he is to meet Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary on Dublin Airport passenger cap.
He says rhat the government supports increasing Dublin Airport’s capacity in alignment with the National Aviation Policy, and that Minister Lawless is engaging with key stakeholders to minimize the impact of the passenger cap.
Minister Lawless has already met with various stakeholders, including local residents, the Dublin Airport Authority (daa), Cork and Shannon Airport Groups, and plans to continue discussions with other airlines and tourism industry groups.
He is awaiting a decision from An Bord Pleanála concerning night flights at Dublin Airport, which is crucial for amending existing passenger limits, and emphasizes that enhanced resources for planning authorities will aid in timely decision-making.
There has been a lot of commentary surrounding the Dublin Airport passenger cap.
Naturally, the prospect of constraints on connectivity are a matter of concern for me in terms of its potential impact on the travelling public, business and tourism.
I wish to reiterate that this Government is in favour of increasing the capacity of Dublin Airport, which is in line with the National Aviation Policy.
In light of this I am undertaking a series of engagements with key stakeholders to seek to limit the impact of this constraint.
I am meeting with Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, on the morning of Wednesday September 11th. This builds on meetings I have had with other key stakeholders including local residents, daa, Cork Airport, Shannon Airport Group and business groups. I will continue this work with further meetings with others, such as other airlines including Aer Lingus, tourism industry groups and regulators.
My objective is to ensure that connectivity to and from Ireland can continue to grow and I believe this can be achieved in the short to medium term, through our other airports at Cork and Shannon which are ready and able to take more passengers.
I keenly await the decision of An Bord Pleanála in relation to Dublin Airport night flights, which has been under consideration since August 2022.
This decision concerns the night-time operations on the new runway at the airport and is key to daa progressing the planning application to amend the existing planning condition limiting the number of passengers using the two terminals at Dublin Airport to 32m passengers per annum.
Ensuring the planning authorities are adequately resourced is key to ensuring decisions are made in a reasonable time frame. I expect that the increase in resources at An Bord Pleanála, both at board and staff level, will improve the decision-making capacity of the board significantly.
