Application to lift Dublin Airport passenger cap to 40 million passes important milestone

The application to lift Dublin Airport’s annual passenger cap to 40 million passed an important milestone today with the submission of daa’s response to Fingal County Council’s (FCC) Request for Further Information (RFI).

In December 2023, daa lodged an Infrastructure Application (IA) seeking permission for a range of significant investments in critical infrastructure and sustainability improvements at Dublin Airport.

It also sought permission to increase the annual number of passengers to 40 million, which is in line with national aviation policy, the Fingal Development Plan and the Dublin Airport Local Area Plan.

In February 2024, FCC requested 85 items of further information, totalling 415 individual sub-queries.

Numerous pre-submission consultation meetings had taken place between daa’s and FCC’s planning teams, but additional queries were to be expected given the size and technical complexity of the IA, which totalled 7,000 pages and 700 technical drawings and was Ireland’s largest planning application last year.

Another factor was the complexity of the legislative and regulatory regime governing the aviation sector and Ireland’s planning system.

To ensure a robust and comprehensive response to FCC’s extensive queries, daa requested additional time in August this year and was granted an extension until November. daa was also awaiting An Bord Pleanála’s decision (ABP) regarding the hours of operation of Dublin Airport’s North Runway and the proposal to manage nighttime noise at the airport through an annual noise quota. ABP’s draft decision was issued in September 2024 and has necessitated a further consultation period, which will conclude on December 23^rd.

Commenting on today’s submission to FCC, daa Chief Commercial and Development Officer Vincent Harrison said: “Dublin Airport fulfils a unique role as the main gateway to Ireland and the island’s only hub airport.

“This means Dublin can support a much higher level of connectivity by pooling both point-to-point and transfer traffic, which is crucially important to enable Ireland to compete with other European airports for routes and services.

“The critical infrastructure and sustainability projects included in the application set Dublin Airport and Ireland up for the future.

“They ensure we grow as the population does, and that we can continue to meet current and future demand for travel which is so important to our economic prosperity.

“Some have questioned why daa did not simply apply to lift the passenger cap only.

“Separating the project would have led to accusations of not taking a holistic view of airport planning. Others have compared the process with general planning laws, which is an overly simplistic approach that ignores the complexities of the Irish planning system.

“Today’s response to FCC involved months of work by national and international specialists including architects, planners, environmental specialists, engineers, sustainability experts, acoustic experts, aviation consultants and master planners. Many State agencies have also helped guide the final submission.

“I’d like to thank all those who contributed their time and expertise to this robust response.

“Dublin Airport is not just Ireland’s main gateway, its campus is comparable in scale to a large Irish town and supports over 20,000 jobs, as well as welcoming up to 120,000 passengers a day at peak periods.

“It is also responsible for the vast majority of high value airfreight nationally, with the strength of its overall economic impact estimated in the region of €9.6 billion.

“Approving infrastructure developments of this size and strategic nature^.is highly complex and challenging and we appreciate FCC’s critical role in delivering on this.

“We hope that the process can now move swiftly and smoothly and welcome all efforts to promote more joined-up thinking in both the planning system and strategic infrastructure development so our island nation can thrive.”

daa’s submission will be published by FCC on the Fingal Online Planning Portal in the coming days.

daa is also in the process of responding to a separate RFI received from the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority (ANCA) in March 2024 for the purpose of aircraft noise assessment. daa will submit its response as soon as practicable.