Ryanair has confirmed that the High Court’s freeze on Dublin Airport’s passenger cap for summer 2025 has come too late to enable it to activate growth plans in Ireland.
The airline plans to invest in 16 new aircraft and create 800 jobs in Ireland, contingent on the removal of the airport’s growth restrictions.
The existing passenger cap of 32 million annually was established as a condition of the 2007 planning permission for the airport’s new terminal and is anticipated to be breached this year.
Ryanair continues to pursue legal challenges against the cap, expressing a desire to collaborate with the new transport minister to prioritize traffic, tourism, and job growth at Dublin Airport.
Ryanair shared “The High Court’s stay ruling prevents the IAA from imposing slot restrictions on Dublin’s summer 2025 traffic until the EU courts have ruled on the matter – but it doesn’t remove the 2007 traffic cap. While this ruling will prevent the loss of over one million passengers travelling to of from Dublin Airport next summer, the cap remains in place and is preventing additional growth at the airport. Ryanair wants to invest and grow in Ireland” and has already submitted “an ambitious growth proposal to Government – that would grow Irish traffic to 30 million passengers per annum by 2030, see Ryanair base 16 new Boeing 737 aircraft here and create 800 jobs in Ireland – which has been ignored. We look forward to working with a new transport minister to urgently prioritise growing traffic, tourism and jobs at Dublin Airport.”
