Dublin airport’s busiest day in January was January 3 with 96,147 passengers. The airport handled 2,117,622 passengers through its terminals during the month, up 0.8pc on January 2024.
A written statement from the airport says the fall in passenger number was due to a cap limiting the airport to 32m passengers, which limited potential growth and tourism.
The cap could have added between 150,000-200,000 additional passengers, contributing significantly to the Irish economy, which benefits from €10bn in GVA and supports 116,100 jobs.
Storm Éowyn disrupted operations on January 24-25, causing over 230 flight cancellations.
daa also confirmed it will resubmit its ‘no build’ Operational Application (OA) to increase passenger numbers at Dublin Airport to 36 million a year to Fingal County Council (FCC) this week.
daa hopes the council can now move swiftly through the planning process and provide a short-term solution to the terminals cap impasse impacting Ireland’s connectivity, tourism and economy.
CEO Kenny Jacobs shared: “Operationally, Dublin Airport had a strong month even with Storm Éowyn, but the cap storm shows no sign of abating. January was the second month running where passenger numbers were lower year-on-year despite huge demand from both passengers and airlines to fly in and out of Dublin Airport. This is consistent with industry predictions that Ireland would be the only country among the top 20 European countries in air travel to show a decline in scheduled seat capacity in Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024.*
“Meanwhile, across the Irish sea, the Westminster government has announced its support for the expansion of Heathrow to unlock growth and make the UK more connected. It’s also pressing on with plans to grow capacity at Stansted, Luton, Gatwick and London City airports. A key element of the UK approach is to speed up their planning system to back those building for the UK’s future.
daa welcomes the new Irish government’s commitment to working with all stakeholders to resolve the cap that is dragging on Dublin’s development and to speeding up major infrastructure development to grow jobs, connectivity and tourism. Ireland has long been regarded as an aviation pioneer and innovator, we want to be setting the standard rather than playing catchup with our neighbours.”
