The US government has joined Irish and American airlines in warning Irish regulators against a plan to limit passenger numbers at Dublin Airport to 25.2 million next summer.
Air travel watchdog, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), this week confirmed it would impose the restriction between March and October 2025 to keep numbers within an overall cap of 32 million a-year.
The move means airlines will have fewer take-off and landing slots at the airport than they did this summer and is likely to prompt legal action.
The US department of transportation wrote to the IAA on September 26th asking it to instead find “an immediate and temporary solution” allowing airlines to keep whatever slots they operated in summer 2024, documents published by the IAA show.
Industry body, Airlines for America, whose members include United Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue, all of which have operations at Dublin, has warned that the IAA appears to be ignoring Irish obligations under treaties allowing Canadian and US airlines equal access with European carriers to EU airports.
Its submission argues that the IAA move could allow local airlines to cut European routes to maintain US and Canadian flights while Airlines for America members are forced to cut services on the same transatlantic routes.
This will “create an imbalance in market access and competition” violating open skies deals between the EU, US and Canada, and rules demanding slot allocations are transparent and non-discriminatory, the organisation said.
Aer Lingus this week confirmed it would “adjust” short-haul capacity to allow it launch a new Dublin-Nashville, Tennessee service next summer. It did not comment on any competition implications.
Ryanair’s submission warned the IAA the summer seat limit was “unlawfu, irrational and disproportionate” and breaches various regulations.
Its chief executive Michael O’Leary confirmed this week that the group would challenge the ruling in court. Ryanair and Aer Lingus want the High Court to review a similar ruling limiting winter traffic at Dublin to 14.4 million passengers.
The IAA said this week it could allocate all slots requested by airlines at Dublin Airport next summer if the 32 million passenger cap was not in force.
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