Dublin Airport chief says ‘outdated’ passenger cap puts 1,000 aviation jobs at risk

Ireland risks losing 1,000 aviation jobs and E500m in tourist spend and other investment because of a cap on passengers at Dublin airport, its operator warned, adding to fears that infrastructure bottlenecks are throttling the country’s growth. Kenny Jacobs, CE of Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), told the Financial Times that in a country already struggling with a chronic housing crisis, strains on the electricity grid and severe planning delays, the limit on passengers “just looks chaotic”. His comments came as the airport announced it was set to exceed the 32mn passenger annual limit imposed in 2007 for the first time this year, by 1mn, due to “record-breaking demand” for travel. “This has gone beyond a transport issue. This is now an Ireland issue,” Jacobs said. DAA said it had made “extensive efforts” to reduce passenger numbers to comply with the cap, which was designed to ease congestion on nearby road links, but was still expecting some 33m travellers this year. The group has applied for permission to raise the annual limit to 40m passengers, not counting those in transit, and said current demand stood at 37m. Jacobs said the “outdated cap” created “uncertainty around inward connectivity . . . it’s another black mark on foreign direct investment in Ireland”. He added he was unsure if the DAA would face any punishment for breaching the limit, saying that “we are in uncharted territory”. Ireland, a small open economy, owes its economic success to a decades-long focus on winning foreign direct investment, with the European headquarters and large operations of major US, European and Chinese tech and pharma companies based in the country.<br/>