Ryanair has warned that a rumoured reduction the number of passengers at Dublin Airport by up to one million in summer 2025 will harm the Irish tourism sector
Ryanair accuses the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) of suggesting the cut, but the IAA denies this claim.
A letter from Luke Manning Head of Economic Regulation at the IAA on August 14th to the Dublin airport slot coordination committee said: “at the pre-meeting of the Coordination Committee on 8 August 2024, a proposal for S25 for a seasonal PATM seat cap coordination parameter of 25.2m seats was outlined. I note that there is a likelihood that a seat cap set at this level may be insufficient to re-allocate all historic slot series from Summer 2024, implying a reduction in historic slots to be allocated for S25. Therefore, as part of its discussions and advice in relation to this proposal, I ask that the Coordination Committee consider and advise the IAA on how it believes such a reduction (if it were to be adopted) might optimally be implemented in practice, in terms, for example, of: • how it should be split across air carriers; and • the allocation/non-allocation in respect of historic slot series of individual air carriers.“
The IAA says that it has not made any official suggestion to cut passenger numbers and will not release a decision until September
The authority put a limit on slots in Dublin airport for the winter to ensure Dublin airport does not exceed the cap of 32m passengers a year.
Michael O’Leary said: “We have been calling for two years on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to scrap this stupid 2007 traffic cap. Sadly, he has failed to act, preferring to hide behind “the planning process”. This planning restriction, which dates from 2007, was designed to address fears that road access to/from the airport would not be able to facilitate traffic over 32m per year. It is clear that this concern is no longer valid and since road traffic is not an issue, Minister Ryan should instruct the IAA to ignore this 17-year-old cap.
Dublin Airport has recently opened a 2nd runway, taking Dublin’s capacity up to 60m passengers p.a. yet our Transport Minister refuses to act to scrap this outdated traffic cap to let Dublin Airport grow. Since the Transport Minister won’t act, we now call on the wider Govt, led by Simon Harris to take urgent action to scrap the cap to allow Irish tourism and jobs to grow in 2025. It is vital that Dublin Airport traffic is allowed to grow so that we can keep air fares low for Irish families going on holidays in 2025.
If the latest proposals from the IAA to comply with this outdated cap proceed, then airlines based at Dublin will not be able to add extra flights this Christmas, and more worryingly, the number at seats at Dublin Airport will be cut by 1m in Summer 2025. Any such cuts will do real damage to Irish tourism and Irish jobs, and will result in much higher air fares for Irish citizens and their families going abroad in Summer 2025.
Irish tourism and Irish jobs should not be damaged by a 17-year-old, defective planning restriction, or an incompetent Transport Minister. An effective Transport Minister would scrap this cap. Since he won’t, we now call on the wider Irish Govt to scrap this cap and allow Dublin Airport, Irish airlines and Irish tourism to continue to grow Irish traffic and jobs in Winter 2024 and Summer 2025.”
The IAA said: “at the end of August, the Coordination Committee will finalise its advice for the IAA on this proposal, and on the other coordination parameters for Summer 2025,” the IAA spokesperson said. The IAA will consider this advice and expects to then publish a draft decision in early September, which will be the first time that the IAA will make any suggestion or proposal in relation to capacity for Summer 2025.”
