Passengers hoping to fly home with Ryanair for Christmas via Dublin Airport may be forced to fly through Belfast due to the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary told the Oireachtas transport committee.
The passenger cap at Dublin Airport in 2006 and currently limits the airport to handling only 32m passengers per year.
Mr O’Leary told the committee that the passenger cap is hindering its growth at Dublin Airport, and the company has diverted aircraft to serve other airports in Europe
Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, is calling on the government to remove the passenger cap, suggesting emergency legislation or a ministerial direction to An Bord Pleanala as potential solutions, while others argue that bypassing regulatory processes could result in legal action and delays.
Mr O’Leary said “transport issues aren’t a high priority for Transport Minister Eamon Ryan. There were two ways the Government could quickly remove the passenger cap. The quickest, easiest and most efficient solution is for the Minister of Transport to now move emergency legislation to amend the Planning and Development Act, he claimed. The second option, and this can be pursued at the same time, is for the Minister for Housing and Local Government to use the Planning and Development Strategic Infrastructure Act 2006 to make airports strategic infrastructure and issue a ministerial direction to An Bord Pleanäla to scrap the passenger cap.”
Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell said “attempts to bypass the regulatory processes, and that attempting to do so would result in legal action. If we interfere in the planning process it will immediately end up in the courts. It will be injuncted and it will be back to square one.”
