Irish High Court Stays Dublin Airport Summer 2025 Passenger Capacity Cap

The Irish High Court stayed the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) capping capacity at Dublin Airport (DUB) to 25.2 million seats for the 2025 summer schedule.

The cap is 1 million below the level of passenger traffic the previous summer. The IAA has conceded the action would decrease airlines’ access to DUB, adding it anticipated “demand for slots for the summer 2025 scheduling season will significantly exceed the 25.2 million seat cap.”

The cap is meant to ensure DUB stays below an annual level of 32 million seats that was put in place in 2007 in an effort to ease road traffic around the airport. The airport has since added a second runway.

The cap is expected to be breached this year, so the summer season slot restrictions—spanning April through October 2025—are meant to ensure the 32 million target is hit next year.

The Irish High Court, responding to legal objections to the cap from Ryanair and Aer Lingus—backed by U.S airlines seeking to preserve transatlantic connectivity to the Irish capital—said the cap has to be stayed until the case is resolved in Irish and European Union courts, citing potential negative consequences for the Irish economy.

Airlines for America (A4A), which represents major U.S. airlines, has deemed the cap a violation of the U.S.-EU open skies agreement. Daa, which runs DUB, warned revenue from tourism would take a hit under the cap.

“We don't want an artificial restriction on the marketplace, and especially one that is based on some very long ago study on road traffic that the Dublin Airport says is obviously not reflective of the current road infrastructure,” A4A Chief Economist John Heimlich said in a recent interview with Aviation Week.

Ryanair, which has been charged in its criticism of the IAA, said it welcomed the decision. “It is deeply regrettable that the airlines had to take legal action to stay the idiotic cap at Dublin Airport,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said in a statement. He has urged Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to overrule the IAA and allow the 32 million annual passengers cap to be surpassed. He called for Ryan to “scrap this outdated and damaging cap.”

Conor McCarthy, founder and executive chairman of Emerald Airlines, an Aer Lingus regional affiliate, told Aviation Week in a recent interview that the 32 million annual cap is “totally nuts.”

Daa has pushed for the annual seat cap to be raised to 40 million, arguing the 32 million cap artificially reduces demand and has “real consequences for airlines, people working at the airport and the traveling public, as well as knock-on impacts on tourism and jobs.”