Regulators must enforce a 32 million a year limit on passengers at Dublin Airport when allocating take-off and landing slots to airlines, the EU’s top court ruled on Thursday.
Airlines challenged the Irish Aviation Authority’s (IAA) decision to include the cap when setting the terms for slot allocation for winter 2024, prompting an Irish judge to refer some questions to the Court of Justice EU (CJEU).
The court ruled on Thursday that the IAA must take the passenger limit into account when setting the terms for allocating slots at Dublin.
The ruling will not affect the IAA’s recent decision to add 28 new take off and landing slots at Dublin for next summer.
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Dublin Airport overtook the limit several years ago, while the High Court’s referral of legal points raised by airlines in their challenge stalled its implementation.
The airport handled 36.4 million people in 2025, a number it expects to exceed this year.
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Planners capped traffic on Dublin Airport’s terminals one and two at 32 million passengers a-year in 2007.
Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien, told The Irish Times that he expected to make an order lifting the limit to 40 million “relatively shortly”.
The IAA is next due to rule on airport slots in April next year, when it will set terms for winter 2027/28.
The Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Act, passed this summer, allows the minister to increase or axe cap.
State airports company, DAA, formally asked O’Brien in August to increase the number to 40 million, kicking off the process required by the law. The minister noted that the process was now under way.
Separately, DAA has also sought an increase to 40 million in an application to planning authority, Fingal County Council, for permission to expand the airport.
DAA said the new law and its €2 billion plan to boost the airport’s infrastructure were critical to the Republic’s economy.
The airports’ company acknowledged that the CJEU decision brought “much-needed clarity” to air travel regulation.
Aer Lingus, one of the airlines that took the original High Court challenge in 2024, argued that the airport capacity act had overtaken the CJEU ruling.
“The priority now is for the remaining statutory process to be completed as quickly as possible so that the passenger cap can be amended, providing the long-term certainty needed by airlines, passengers and the wider Irish economy,” said the company.
Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, which was also involved in the High Court case, said the European court ruling highlighted the need for the Government to abolish the passenger cap.
He predicted that traffic at Dublin would hit 40 million next year following the IAA’s decision to cut passenger charges there. Ryanair pledged to add more aircraft to its base there following the regulator’s move.
“It is now time to abolish this stupid cap altogether, and allow the airlines to deliver competition, choice, and lower fares for Irish consumers and visitors,” said O’Leary.
He pointed out that the Government pledged to abolish the cap when it came to power in and had legislation allowing it to do so.
The High Court adjourned the airlines’ challenge after referring it to Europe. The Irish courts must apply the CJEU ruling should the airlines continue their original action. USA carriers joined Aer Lingus and Ryanair in the case.
