DAA looks to raise passenger cap – again

On December 20, with the seeming intent of wanting to slip it by a distracted public, Dublin Airport announced its intention to raise the passenger cap at the airport to 36 million.

With a cap of 32 million in place, Dublin Airport has spent the last two years attempting to raise the passenger cap despite fierce opposition from environmentalists, who believe raising the passenger cap would be a major setback with regards to Ireland’s climate targets, and local residents, who have expressed unease about increased air traffic near their homes.

The December application to raise the passenger cap is separate from an application by the daa to raise the passenger cap to 40 million passengers, which they lodged earlier in December 2023.

In winter months, the passenger cap at Dublin Airport is set at 14.4 million passengers from October 27 until March 29.

The issue of the passenger cap became an election issue in November, with Ryanair claiming that Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan was to blame for the impasse despite it being in the hands of Fingal County Council and not the Department of Transport.

O’Leary claimed that with the Greens out of government, the cap is likely to be scrapped as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael (as well as Sinn Féin) committed to lifting the passenger cap in their election manifestos.

Labour and the Social Democrats’ manifestos didn’t mention directly mention the passenger cap in their manifestos, but Labour called for the “prioritisation of sustainable development of regional airports, over further concentration in Dublin and reroute air traffic from Dublin airport to Shannon and Cork airports as a matter of priority,” and the Social Democrats called for the Irish aviation industry to focus on using underused airports such as those in Cork and the west of Ireland.

December’s application will be assessed by Fingal County Council’s planning authority in accordance with relevant national and regional planning guidance as well as the Fingal Development Plan and the Dublin Airport Local Area Plan.

In a statement to RTÉ, daa said it hopes the application “can move swiftly through the planning system” as the application does not involve building any infrastructure.

The daa said they hope for the request to be granted it hopes as it claims a higher passenger cap would “provide a short-term solution to the terminals cap impasse impacting Ireland’s connectivity, tourism and economy”.

The current passenger cap at Dublin Airport was set in 2007 by Fingal County Council as Terminal Two was then under construction at the Northside airport.

Consultancy firm Coakley O’Neill were commissioned by the daa to make the pitch to the planning authorities.

They stated there is a “pressing need” for the cap to be lifted.

“There is a pressing need for the airport, as Ireland’s national airport, to be in a position, in the short-term, to compete with other international hub airports of scale for new routes and connections, for the benefit of the country as a whole, by way of an uplift in passenger throughput,” they said.

The report claims “the proposed uplift in passenger numbers has been assessed against key environmental metrics, including aviation noise and traffic, to demonstrate that the proposed development is in line with applicable planning and aviation policy, and that there are no significant environmental effects”.

Research carried out by the firm found that Dublin Airport could carry as many as 40 million passengers by 2030.

2024 saw Ireland host a number of major events such as the Six Nations, the Europa League final in May, Taylor Swift fans attending the Eras tour after being priced out of other European gigs, the Saint Patrick’s Day festivities among other events.

With Dublin on track to host games at Euro 2028 at the Aviva Stadium (and Belfast now out of the running as a host city), the rest of the decade is likely to be dominated by discussion of the passenger cap being raised.

Prominent environmentalists have raised concerns about the raising of the passenger cap, however.

In September 2024, Mayor of Fingal County Council Brian McDonagh (Labour), said “I have no confidence or trust in the DAA’s willingness to address noise-related health problems or carbon emissions.”

2021’s COP27 conference found that Dublin Airport emitted more than 1 million tonnes of carbon emissions in 2021, the single biggest producer of carbon emissions in the country, while statistics from early 2024 revealed that Dublin Airport produced 2.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions in 2019.

2.8 million tonnes of carbon is the equivalent of what 1.4 million cars would produce in a single year.

Members of the public have until February 4 to raise any objections or make any submissions of their own to the new plan.