The CEO of Emerald Airlines has called for "real leadership" from Government to address the issues created by the passenger cap at Dublin Airport.
Earlier this week the Irish Aviation Authority confirmed plans to limit seat capacity at Dublin Airport to 25.2 million next summer.
That is one million fewer seats than were available this summer, and comes as the regulator tries to keep the airport within its 32 million passenger cap for the full year.
Airlines have criticised the limit and said that they will now be required to curtail services at Dublin, at a time when they want to grow.
"Every stakeholder in this process has admitted it's madness, the Taoiseach even last weekend admitted the situation was madness," said Emerald Airlines CEO Keith Butler on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
"We think it's time that leadership is shown to address this artificial, man-made cap, which has nothing to do with airport capacity, has nothing to do with local infrastructure capacity at this point."
He called on Taoiseach Simon Harris to take personal ownership of the situation and to put "practical solutions in place immediately" to address the issue.
The Government has said it cannot interfere with the planning process and all parties must now wait for a decision from Fingal County Council.
However many stakeholders - including Ryanair's Michael O'Leary and Emerald Airlines' Keith Butler - have said they do not agree with that stance.
"Just give a bit of breathing space to allow the airport to continue to grow whilst the full planning permission for the 40 million increased cap is delivered," said Mr Butler.
He said airlines were now trying to work out what next year's limitations will mean for their operations at Dublin, but the indications were that traffic volumes would have to fall by around 5%.
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Emerald Airlines operates the Aer Lingus Regional service on behalf of Aer Lingus, which tends to fly smaller aircraft on routes around Europe.
Mr Butler said it operates as a standalone carrier to Aer Lingus, and so he did not see it being disproportionately impacted by the cuts to services.
However he also said it was not a case of airlines like his simply redirecting capacity to Shannon or Cork.
"It's not a realistic substitute to Dublin," he said. "When airlines are assessing where they put their capacity, they're looking at airports all across Europe.
"So Cork and Shannon do not just compete with Dublin for capacity, they compete with Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and hundreds of other airports around Europe."
In addition to Aer Lingus Regional, Emerald also offers private charter services.
However Mr Butler said this would be impossible to do at Dublin Airport in the context of the cap.
"Any additional flights that we may put on - for big events, the Six Nations Rugby or Cheltenham or any major sporting or cultural events - we won't be able to put on extra capacity. No airline will be able to put on extra capacity," he said.
"We have to find ways now of cutting what we had this year, never mind considering any additional capacity. For those opportunities, we'll have to look elsewhere," he added.
