Daa claims draft decision to cut Dublin Airport night flights has 'significant contradictions'

Wed, 18 Sep, 2024 - 17:13

Cianan Brennan

The administrator of Dublin Airport has said a draft decision by An Bord Pleanála calling for the curbing of night flights at the airport “does not reflect what was intended from this process”.

Daa said that the new decision contains what appear to be “significant contradictions”. It said as it stands the draft ruling “would be a backward step that will significantly impact aviation and passenger numbers at Dublin Airport”.

On Monday, An Bord Pleanála said, in ruling on an application for a ‘relevant action’ by Daa to amend the planning permission under which its north runway was constructed, that the airport should restrict its number of night flights to 13,000 per year — a figure some 20,000 shy of the number of such flights being handled by Dublin Airport at present.

Daa’s application had aimed to have the current cap of 65 flights per night removed in favour of a ‘night-time noise quota’ system.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

While the planning board's decision agreed that the 65-flight cap should be removed, in applying a movements restriction the airport would, under that ruling, in effect be operating at a new limit of just 36 night flights per day on average.

“It appears from the draft decision that An Bord Pleanála has proposed a new noise quota but also imposed an overall restriction on the number of night flights that would be permitted which would be significantly lower than the 2007 planning condition,” a Daa spokesperson said.

“This would reduce the night-time flights by over 60% and have significant implications for passengers and airlines, as well as freight operations.”

An Bord Pleanála's draft decision has now gone to public consultation for the next 14 weeks.