Dublin Airport seeks to change night-time hours

The DAA claims its new runway proposal will help Ireland to recover from the Covid-19 economic crisis. 

A man wearing protective face mask walks through Terminal 2 in Dublin Airport. File picture: Brian Lawless

DAA, the owner of Dublin and Cork airports, said it will seek to change what it claims are "onerous conditions" for the night hours during which it is allowed to operate its planned new runway in Dublin. 

The permitted hours for the new North Runway, between 11pm and 7am, also mean it can have only 65 plan "movements" at the airport during the night hours. 

It wants a night-time noise-control system instead, and for the North Runway to operate between 6am and midnight, "meaning that there would be no flights on the new runway during the core midnight-to-6am night-time hours". 

It will now seek to alter the existing planning permission.

“We had originally wanted to have these two onerous conditions removed entirely,” said DAA chief
Dalton Philips, “but, having engaged with the local community and listened to their views, we have revised our previous position and are now proposing very significant mitigation measures”. 

The DAA, which said earlier this week that it will cut airline charges to encourage flights to resume into Dublin and Cork this summer, also claimed its new runway proposal will help Ireland to recover from the Covid-19 economic crisis. 

Under the plan, it said it is also proposing a further plan, at a cost of €7m, to insulate nearby homes.

It said it envisages paying €20,000 to 350 houses that would qualify for the scheme.