Dublin Airport passenger cap will push Christmas air fares to €500, Ryanair boss warns

Chief executive Eddie Wilson said one-way flights on the London - Dublin route could rise to as much as €500 around the peak Christmas travel period as a result of the newly introduced limit on winter traffic at the airport.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) announced earlier this month that it is imposing a cap of 14.4 million seats at Dublin Airport for the winter season, which runs from October to March.

This is the first time such a cap has been imposed by the IAA.

“We put in approximately 300,000 extra seats on the London-Dublin route [last winter] over and above what we already have there,” Mr Wilson said.

“We can’t put in any of those year. If those 300,000 seats are not on sale, prices on the Dublin-London route are going to go through the roof at Christmas.”

“Families or people at the last minute will be paying up to €500, we estimate,” he added.

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The airline reported that it would not be able to add extra seats for times of peak demand, including mid-term breaks, St Patrick’s Day, Cheltenham and other sporting events, such as Champions League matches.

“What normally happens in the winter is that you’ve extra aircraft that you can’t fly for the whole season so what you try to do is put in some of spare aircraft for peak periods,” Mr Wilson said.

This will no longer be possible to do as a result of the passenger cap, he reported.

Ryanair said it was allocated one million fewer seats this winter than it requires to meet demand from passengers.

The carrier had planned to add 15 new routes over the period, it said today.

“The summer grew this year and that feeds into the overall cap,” Mr Wilson pointed out.

There is a currently a 32 million passenger cap at Dublin Airport each year which is imposed by conditions attached to the planning permission granted for Terminal 2 almost 20 years ago.

Last year, more than 31.9 million passengers passed through the two terminals of the airport.

Dublin Airport Authority reported yesterday that it was considering looking for short-term permission for Dublin Airport to handle 36 million passengers a year as an interim measure.

The DAA is seeking to raise the cap to 40 million per year as part of a capital investment programme but a decision on that process isn’t expected for a number of years.

Ryanair has called on the Government to make changes to the passenger cap on a number of occasions, stating it will lead to “irreparable damage” to Ireland’s tourism, jobs and economy.

“This is what Governments are there to do, solve problems for their citizens,” Mr Wilson said.

Aer Lingus also reported earlier this month that seasonal flights, such as Lapland and ski trips could be impacted this winter as a result of the passenger cap.