The aviation regulator has proposed limiting passenger seat capacity at Dublin Airport over next summer because of the passenger cap at the airport.
The proposal is contained in a draft decision issued by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), which if adopted would see a seat capacity limit of 25.2 million passengers implemented at the airport between 30 March and 25 October next year.
This would be around 1m fewer seats than this summer season.
It had been expected that the IAA would curtail capacity at the airport next summer, because the facility has reached the cap of 32 million passengers a year allowed under existing planning permissions.
If the proposals are put into effect it would be the first time that a limit on seat capacity had been placed on Dublin Airport over the key and busy summer season.
The IAA has already placed a seat cap of 14.4 million on the airport for the winter season, which begins in October and runs until the end of March.
The combined seat cap for both seasons is higher than the passenger cap as it takes account of the expected extent to which each aircraft will be full and an adjustment for passengers who are only transiting through the airport.
In a statement the regulator said its role includes identifying and determining the capacity at Dublin Airport and setting the consequent parameters for slot allocation.
It said in doing so it must take account of all relevant technical, operational and environmental constraints, including planning constraints imposed on airport operator daa by the planning authorities.
When planning permission was granted for the second terminal at Dublin Airport in 2007, the authorities limited the number of passengers to a maximum of 32 million a year due concerns about congestion on surrounding roads.
"To take account of the capacity constraint represented by this planning condition, the IAA proposes to implement a seat capacity limit of 25.2 million seats for the summer 2025 scheduling season," the IAA said.
"This is in line with the proposal outlined by daa, the operator of Dublin Airport, during the deliberations of the coordination committee, in which daa also stated that the IAA should have regard to the condition."
"The members of the coordination committee include Dublin Airport and the air carriers using Dublin Airport, and the committee is tasked by the Slot Regulation with providing proposals and/or advice to the IAA."
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The regulator added that the demand for slots from airlines for the summer season would significantly exceed the proposed seat cap.
As a result, those who had operated a series of slots of five weeks or more this summer would be given priority, it said.
"However, the IAA anticipates that not all slot series from Summer 2024 would be capable of being accommodated within the proposed seat cap," it said.
"In addition, the IAA anticipates that, like winter 2024, this proposal would result in very little, if any, available capacity for new slot requests, or for ad hoc slot requests, for passenger flights using the capacity of Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 during the Summer 2025 scheduling season."
The IAA said it does not have the power to amend or revoke planning conditions, or any decision to enforce or not enforce conditions as these are matters for planning authorities, such as Fingal County Council.
In a statement, the daa said that it welcomes the IAA's draft decision over the passenger cap at Dublin Airport.
It said that while it reviews the draft decision, it fully understands the "disappointment that will be felt by the airlines already operating at Dublin who want to grow, and airlines that want to come here but can't get slots.
"This will also cause anxiety and uncertainty among the 20-thousand people working in aviation jobs across the Dublin Airport campus and the travelling public."
Airlines, including Ryanair and Aer Lingus, have called for Government intervention on the issue of the passenger cap, because of the limits it will place on their planned growth.
In a statement, Ryanair called on the Taoiseach to intervene in the situation and for Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to issue a ministerial direction to the IAA to approve additional slots for Dublin Airport's winter and summer 2025 slots.
The draft proposal is subject to consultation up to the end of this month.
