EU court backs Dublin Airport’s 32 million passenger cap in landmark ruling

That capacity is dictated by a 2007 planning decision issued by An Bord Pleanála, which said Dublin Airport’s operations must not exceed 32 million passengers annually. File picture

Ireland’s aviation regulator has the power to limit the number of flights to and from Dublin Airport to accommodate 32 million passengers, a landmark judgement by the Court of Justice of the EU says.

In its long-awaited ruling on the controversial Dublin Airport passenger cap on Thursday morning, the CJEU said that the airline slots allocated by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) “must reflect, in operational terms, all the capacity that is actually available at a coordinated airport”.

“The Court concludes that such a limit must be taken into account when determining the coordination parameters,” the judgment said.

That capacity is dictated by a 2007 planning decision handed down by An Bord Pleanala, which said that Dublin Airport’s operations must not exceed the handling of 32 million passengers per year.

The ruling is a significant blow to a challenge taken by a number of airlines - including Ryanair and Aer Lingus - to the cap dating from 2024.

Those airlines had challenged the legitimacy of the cap in the High Court, which subsequently referred the question of whether or not the passenger cap needed to be taken into account when deciding slots to the CJEU.

The CJEU decision further asserts that an airline having had access to airport slots historically is no guarantee that those slots will be available to it in the future.

“The taking into account of a passenger limit may exceptionally result in some series of historic slots, or components thereof, not being reallocated to airlines which would otherwise in principle be entitled to them,” the court said.

The decision will now be referred back to the High Court, which will use it as guidance in coming to its own decision on the matter.

Airport administrator Daa, while separately petitioning to have the controversial passenger cap removed, had argued in the 2024 High Court case that a reduction in flight slots was the appropriate mechanism for ensuring the cap was not breached.

A spokesperson for the body said that the CJEU decision “brings much-needed clarity to the various regulatory regimes impacting aviation in Ireland”.

The Department of Transport, which is in the process of bringing legislation to the Oireachtas to scrap the cap, declined to comment citing the ongoing nature of the High Court case.

Residents welcome cap ruling

The local St Margaret’s/The Ward (SMTW) residents’ grouping, a long-time supporter of the 32 million cap, said it “welcomes” the ruling, asserting that “planning limits at Dublin Airport can no longer be ignored”.

“The Court confirms the Advocate General's opinion that the 32 million passenger cap at Dublin Airport is a constraint the Irish Aviation Authority can and must take into account when setting slot parameters,” the group said in a statement.

“This judgment vindicates what residents have been saying for years. The planning conditions attached to Dublin Airport were not optional. They were put in place to protect the communities and the environment around the airport. Yet for years they were treated as an inconvenience to be set aside, and the airport was allowed to grow well beyond what it was permitted to,” it said.

The residents called on the Government “to respect the spirit of today’s ruling”.

Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien has committed to scrapping the passenger cap, which is seen by business leaders and vested interests as detrimental to the operation of the airport at its full capacity.

SMTW described that legislation as “an Irish solution to an Irish problem”.

“The Government is legislating to fix a problem that exists only because one State authority ignored the constraints put in place by another,” the group said.

This article was edited to remove a reference to daa having initiated a 2024 High Court action with the named airlines to challenge the passenger cap. In fact, Daa was later joined to those proceedings, and said in that action that its position was that a reduction in flight slots was the appropriate mechanism for ensuring the cap was not breached.