Aer Lingus has raised concerns to the Government about DAA restrictions on charter flights potentially damaging Ireland’s reputation and impacting events such as the Six Nations and US College Football.
In a letter to Junior Transport Minister Jack Chambers, the airline has criticised DAA for not addressing the issue of passenger caps in a timely manner and for restricting operations of existing airlines while adding new carriers to its customer base.
Aer Lingus chief executive warned that limitations on ad-hoc and charter flights may have financial and reputational consequences for the airline and Ireland, with over 90pc of airline members rejecting DAA’s proposals.
DAA has applied for planning permission to raise the passenger cap to 40m, but a decision may take a couple of years, raising concerns about breaching the current cap and potential flight disruptions at Aer Lingus.
CEO Lynne Embleton told Mr Chambers in a letter last January, released under freedom of information laws “DAA has not acted in a timely manner to address this critical issue and yet has continued to add to its airline customer base at Dublin Airport as is evidenced by recent announcements of new entrant carriers for 2024. This would cause Aer Lingus, and Ireland, significant financial and reputational damage. These proposals have correctly been rejected by over 90pc of the airline members of the Dublin Airport coordination committee. Given that the rationale for this cap related to the ground transport infrastructure serving the airport, there are strong arguments for excluding entirely certain categories of passengers, most notably transfer passengers, from the calculation of passenger numbers for the purpose of the planning restrictions.”
