Airlines plan to increase Dublin Airport seats as cap row lingers

Airlines will boost seats on Dublin Airport flights this summer after the High Court stalled efforts to enforce a controversial 32m a-year passenger limit there pending a ruling from Europe. Dublin Airport breached the limit in 2024, when 33.3m people passed through its terminals and it expects growth to continue this year, barring a dip in numbers to the end of March, according to Kenny Jacobs, CE of DAA, the airport’s State-owned operator. Jacobs noted that airlines sought more take-off and landing slots at Dublin after the High Court put a stay on the cap pending a ruling by the European courts on key legal issues raised by the planning condition. “Ryanair and Aer Lingus have filed for more slots in 2025, charter operators have filed for more slots,” he said, adding that US and Middle Eastern carriers were also likely to bid for extra capacity at Dublin for this summer. He calculated that this would increase passenger numbers this summer by one million, meaning that the airport will once again exceed the limit, imposed by planners in 2007 to ease fears of traffic jams on the roads leading to there. “But that does not mean that the cap does not exist,” Jacobs cautioned. He stressed that DAA needed the limit lifted, either by the courts or the planning process.<br/>