On Monday the Irish High Court put a pause on a passenger cap introduced by The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) that would have reduced capacity at the airport to just 25.2 million.
The IAA has introduced the limit to run between March and October next summer to make sure the airport didn't breach a planning condition to limit capacity to 32 million passengers a year. That limit was set in 2007, as part of a deal to get permission for the airport to build Terminal 2.
Airlines for America, a group representing US carriers, Aer Lingus and Ryanair worked together to bring the case to the high court to halt or overturn the limit on passenger numbers that could have seen flights moving to Belfast and Cork.
Today the high court put a pause on the cap, the Irish Times reported Justice Barry O’Donnell said the airlines would suffer “immediate serious consequences” if he refused to pause the seat cap. In his ruling, the judge said that the primary responsibility for complying with the 2007 planning conditions rests only with DAA, the airport's operator
Unsurprisingly, Ryanair welcomed the ruling, saying "It believes that the Dublin Airport Cap is in breach of EU legislation on Freedom of Movement. Ryanair remains confident that EU law will triumph 2007 Fingal planning restriction and will allow airlines to grow traffic and tourism with the benefit of Dublin’s second runway.
Ryanair’s aggressive multimillionaire CEO Michael O’Leary said: “It is deeply regrettable that the airlines had to take legal action to stay the idiotic cap at Dublin Airport solely because Transport Minister, Eamon Ryan, wouldn’t do his job and issue a letter to the IAA. The Dublin Airport cap is in breach of EU law and any competent Transport Minister (not to mention Tourism Minister, Catherine Martin) would have acted to scrap this outdated and damaging cap.
Today’s High Court ruling clears the way for this matter to be referred to the European Courts where Ryanair is confident that this absurd road traffic restriction from 2007 will be removed, which will enable airlines like Ryanair to continue to grow traffic, tourism, and jobs in Ireland, where two Green Ministers (Eamon Ryan and Catherine Martin) have failed to act for the last 5 years.
We hope the forthcoming Election will remove the deadhanded Green Party incompetence from Irish tourism and aviation so that Ryanair can return to growing at Dublin Airport instead of sending growth to Belfast, Italy and Poland.”.
Despite both Ryanair and Aer Lingus legally challenging the winter season passenger cap of 14.4 million between now and March next year, they didn't ask for a pause on it at the court.
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