Ryanair has responded to the Prime Time programme about noise complaints that was aired on Tuesday October 3. Ryanair’s five points are:
- Since the north runway opened in Aug 2022, there has been no increase in night-time noise, because no aircraft are allowed to take off from the 2nd runway between 11pm and 7am in the morning.
- The vast majority of Ryanair aircraft operating to/from Dublin Airport are now up to 50pc quieter than they were 16 years ago when the planning permission for the 2nd runway was first approved.
- The claims about the Kilcoskan National School do not stand up to scrutiny when students only attend this school between the hours of 09:00am and 15:00pm, and so this school is entirely unaffected by night-time noise.
- Almost all of the claims made by local residents come from persons who purchased or built their houses in the last 30 years, well aware of the fact that Dublin Airport has been located at Collinstown since 1939, over 84 years ago.
- Of the 26,000 noise complaints submitted to DAA in 2022, over 23,400 or 90pc were made by just one person.
Eddy Wilson of Ryanair said: “It comes as no surprise that RTE Prime Time cannot accurately report on the airport noise issue at Dublin Airport. RTE’s Prime Time broadcast referred to night-time noise without explaining that there are very few aircraft movements between 11pm and 7am in the morning and almost all of these are operated by new “quieter” aircraft.
Secondly, they failed to take any decibel noise readings inside the homes or bedrooms of the 2 residents who complained about aircraft noise and/or night-time noise affecting their sleep.
Thirdly, RTE wrongly reported that Dublin Airport flight paths were not the ones that were originally approved by Fingal County Council, despite Dublin Airport correcting this factual error on camera.
Fourthly, the three complaining residents identified on the programme appear to have moved into their properties in the last decade, well aware that they were in the immediate environment of Dublin Airport, which continues to take stringent steps to reduce noise, not least of which has been multi-billion-dollar investments by Dublin’s main airlines, Ryanair and Aer Lingus, in quieter aircraft and IAA approved noise ameliorating flight paths.
It is notable that over 90pc of the noise complaints submitted to DAA came from just one person. Some modest level of noise is inevitable for residents living in and around Dublin Airport. These residents benefit from the increasing value of properties around Dublin Airport. At a time when airlines are investing heavily in noise reducing aircraft, Ryanair calls on RTE Prime Time to “shsssh” unless they want to report the facts about reducing aircraft noise at Dublin Airport.”
