‘Bogus’ passenger cap at Dublin Airport must be scrapped

Ryanair has said the Transport Minister should scrap what it calls the “bogus” passenger cap at Dublin Airport – which it claims is losing routes, traffic and jobs this summer.

Airline CEO, Michael O’Leary is attending the Oireachtas Transport Committee along with colleagues to discuss the cap – which currently stands at 32 million passengers annually.

In a statement to the committee, the he said other EU states and airports are laughing at Ireland and Dublin Airport’s passenger cap.

Showing slides to the committee this afternoon, Mr O’Leary said the cap is proving an advantage to other countries.

“We want to deliver growth in routes, traffic and jobs here, but we’re being impeded,” he said.

Mr O’Leary said aircraft lost to Ireland have gone to Copenhagen, Morocco and other countries.

He said that the new aircraft are 50% quieter, carry 20% more passengers, and use 20% less fuel.

“We are capped at 32m passengers a year, despite building a second runway…which has the capacity to take 60m passengers a year.”

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‘It is not a Fingal issue, it is a national issue’

Mr O’Leary said the traffic cap of 32 million was imposed in 2007 by An Bord Pleanála.

He also said he would be “dead” before Metro North would be built, but despite this he said there was no crisis in getting passengers to Dublin Airport.

He said it suited the Dublin Airport Authority (daa) to say “we’re full” and criticised the Authority for raising prices.

Mr O’Leary said Dublin Airport owned many fields around the airport and could “easily” open up new car parks.

“The daa are using these artificial constraints” (cap and car parks) so they can charge passengers more at the airport,” he said.

Mr O’Leary said Ryanair could grow passenger numbers by 50% to 30 million by 2030.

He said the airline also saw potential in Ireland West Aiport in Knock to grow to 1.5m passengers a year by 2030.

He also decried the fact that he had yet to receive a response from the Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to his growth plans.

He said Dublin Airport “is not a Fingal issue, it is a national issue”.

‘26,000 noise complaints about Dublin Airport’

He also blamed “a couple of Nimbys in north county Dublin” for the noise complaints.

To illustrate this point, he said that last year there were 26,000 noise complaints about Dublin Airport. “24,500 of those came from one person. 90% came from one person.”

Asked by Cathal Crowe about the cap, Mr O’Leary said it was unique to Ireland and based on arbitrary planning projections.

He said it will be four years before it gets fixed due to An Bord Pleanála reviews and expected High Court challenges.

Ryanair is suggesting that the passenger cap can be removed by legislative instrument or Ministerial order.

Ryanair’s chief commercial officer, Jason McGuinness said Dublin Airport lost 16 potential new routes as a result of the cap.

He said there is enormous competition across Europe for Ryanair services.

He said he gets 10-12 airports visiting Ryanair each week offering new slots – who laugh when they hear that Dublin Airport has a passenger cap.

Warning of fare hike for Christmas

Senator Gerard Craughwell said Ryanair had revolutionised travel in Ireland.

But he said he was concerned at the airline’s claim that Christmas fares would rise to €500, asking was this to put pressure on the Government.

Mr O’Leary said if they could not add 200 extra flights this Christmas, fares would go up.

“We are facing a situation where fares will be materially higher, because we can’t add 276,000 seats.”

He said people would really feel the price increases at Christmas and possibly during the October mid-term break.

On car parking, Michael O’Leary said it would be completely wrong for Dublin Airport to monopolise car parking spaces at the airport.

Gerard Craughwell asked Mr O’Leary if he would consider opening up an airline pilot training school in the west of Ireland.

Mr O’Leary said they were spending €50 million on building a pilot training academy in Madrid already.

He also said that the pilot academy in Dublin produces about 250-300 pilot cadets yearly.

“Pilots are a very skilled profession, but they are very well paid,” he said.

“It is a particularly easy job on a lovely sunny day…but they earn every cent [amid high winds]. There is no pilot shortage, especially in Ryanair.”

‘Quieter aircraft’

Labour TD Duncan Smith said he believed the Metro Link was a must, and if it is built as planned, it will assist the workers of Ryanair and the airport and is designed for the growth of the town of Swords.

Deputy Smith said the passenger cap was based not on the local roads plan as suggested by Michael O’Leary, but rather on the national roads plan.

He also said it was unfair to call Fingal residents NIMBYs – who had understandable cause for frustration against the daa.

He asked about Mr O’Leary’s claims about “quieter aircraft”. Mr O’Leary said there is a noise profile of the older 737s versus the newer aircraft, which he said were materially quieter.

He said they were about 50% lower by decibel level, which will be reduced by a further 30% in new aircraft to be delivered in 2027.

Mr O’Leary said that the increase in decibel levels when an airplane goes over certain areas was small (c 5 db increase) – saying the levels were significantly lower than was commonly recorded on O’Connell Street in Dublin.

He also said RTÉ liked to interview “teary-eyed mothers” about decibel levels, but never measured the levels themselves.

On accommodation shortages, Mr O’Leary said the only way to solve the problem for airline staff was to buy around 40 houses around Swords.

He said they now have “around 150 bedrooms” for cabin crew near the airport.

“Governments have two choices, they can do nothing, or they can take action, and if they take action they’ll get more votes,” Mr O’Leary said.

Cathal Crowe said the Ryanair model was going extremely well, but he said the public would really like to see Ryanair go into the transatlantic space.

Mr O’Leary said it is a different business altogether. He said nobody wants business class transport for short haul.

On long haul, you still have to show up three hours beforehand and he said that about 30% of passengers still would happily pay “gargantuan” airfares.

“I will fly economy everywhere around Europe, I will not fly economy [on long haul].”

He said that high-heel traffic pays for the lower fares, and that it is a different business model.

Mr O’Leary said he would not change a word of Ireland’s aviation policy, but that the Transport Minister does not adhere to it.

On Air Traffic Control (ATC), committee chair Senator Gerry Horkan asked if progress was being made.

Mr O’Leary said it was getting marginally better, as there were no strikes by the French ATC in the last 53 days.

“The problem in Europe…is trying to persuade Europe that you have a single aviation [system].”

Mr O’Leary said the problem was that France closes the sky, and its geographic centrality means that European airspace is effectively closed.