The passenger cap at Dublin airport has prevented Jet2 getting takeoff and landing slots at Dublin Airport.
Other airlines such as Aer Lingus, Ryanair, Etihad, JetBlue, Air Canada, and LuxAir also sought additional slots that were not granted.
The Irish Aviation Authority placed a cap of 14.4m on the number of seats available at Dublin Airport for the winter period.
Lufthansa, FedEx, and DHL Air UK were the only carriers to secure additional or first-time slots they requested, while other airlines like Chinese carrier Hainan, Tap Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, Iberia Express, and United Airlines were amongst those denied extra slots.
A planning condition attached to the construction of Dublin Airport’s T2 in 2006 capped the total amount of passenger traffic at the gateway to 32m due to concerns about traffic on the M50. The IAA moved to police this by restraining winter slots at the airport
Michael Healy Ryanair’s director of network optimisation said in a submission “artificially constraining capacity at Ireland’s main international gateway would unfairly deprive airlines and passengers at Dublin Airport of the benefit of their recent substantial contribution to capital projects at the airport, while reducing competition, damaging economic growth, tourism and employment in Ireland.”
