The chief executive of Ryanair has said the 32 million passenger-a-year cap at Dublin Airport is “bogus” because DAA, the State-owned company that operates the airport, has built a second runway that has the capacity to raise passenger traffic at the aviation hub to 60 million a year.
Michael O’Leary was speaking to reporters after Ryanair’s AGM in Dublin on Thursday, one day after he met with Minister of State in the Department of Transport James Lawless to discuss the impasse over the cap. DAA has said the cap will be breached this year, and there will be fewer slots available for airlines at Dublin Airport this winter.
“We’ve already broken it,” he said. “It’s at 33 million passengers this year. So the only issue is, now, does anybody really believe that Fingal County Council will not lift this restriction at the end of the current planning process? No. So the question is, what do we do for the next two or three years?”
Mr O’Leary reiterated his claim that the loss of slots this winter will result in passengers being forced to travel by boat and other means transport during the Christmas period. The airline has written a letter for the minister to sign an order directing the Irish Aviation Authority, which is set to publish its draft summer slots decision on Thursday, to issue additional slots to avert the potential crisis.
He said the cap was introduced in 2007 by An Bord Pleanála over concerns about car traffic into and out of Dublin Airport. However, Mr O’Leary said that problem “no longer exists” because a larger share of passengers use public transport to travel to and from the airport.
“Any competent politician would come out and say that problem no longer exists,” he said, referring to Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan. “We wouldn’t be having this ludicrous debate or controversy over an entirely bogus f***ing cap that is that is restricting the growth of Dublin Airport, and actually is preventing us and the other airlines adding the 250,000 extra seats we had every Christmas.”
Despite what he described as record-breaking passenger numbers over the summer months, Mr O’Leary said he expects air fares to be “materially lower” in the second quarter of its financial year, the three months to the end of September. However, he said the low-cost carrier no longer expects double-digit decline compared with the previous year.
“They are down this summer,” he said. “But we expect to finish with between 5 per cent and 10 per cet down for the summer peak, which does mean we are carrying more customers, but at lower fares than we did last year.”
Overall, Mr O’Leary said Ryanair will carry around 200 million passengers this year, representing growth of 8 per cent compared with 2023. But the airline expects annual growth to be more subdued over the coming years as it awaits delivery of some 300 aircraft from Boeing between now and 2033, which it says will allow Ryanair to carry 300 million passengers each year.
He said Ryanair is heaping pressure on Boeing to stick to its delivery schedule after a number of delays, stemming from supply chain issues and questions over the quality of the aviation giant’s production processes after high profile in-flight incidents on board Boeing aircraft in recent times.
Certification of Boeing’s 737 Max-10 aircraft by US authorities was pushed out earlier this year over an issue with the aircraft’s anti-icing systems.
Mr O’Leary said certification is now expected to be completed in the spring of 2025. However, he warned if there are “any further slippages” in time frame, “we will be in trouble for our spring 2027 deliveries”. He said Ryanair engineers are “on the ground” at Boeing’s Seattle and Wichita facilities in the US to ensure the quality of the aircraft being delivered.
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