Ireland enacts law to lift Dublin Airport passenger cap

International Consolidated Airlines

16/07/2026 17:14

    DUBLIN, July 16 (Reuters) - Ireland's transport minister on Thursday moved to lift a cap on passenger numbers at Dublin Airport that has come under fire from European and U.S. airlines after President Catherine Connolly signed new legislation into law.

    The government has been under pressure to lift the 32 million passenger-per-year cap, which is ​currently suspended pending a 
    European Court ruling
    . The airport overshot the limit by 4 million ​passengers last year.
  
Irish Transport Minister Darragh O'Brien in a statement welcomed the signing of the law by Connolly, and said he hoped an order to amend or revoke the cap would be made as soon as possible following an environmental assessment.  
"I plan to immediately commence the relevant provisions of the Act," he said. "This will now facilitate the sustainable development of Dublin Airport."
O'Brien told Reuters in May that he had hoped the bill would become law by July. 
The number of passengers at Ireland's main airport was capped at 32 million by planners in 2007, in part to avoid local road congestion.

    Some local residents support capping passenger numbers at the airport, which carries around 80% of the country's air traffic. Environment groups have warned its removal would weaken oversight of a high-emission sector.
  

    But the measure has been 
    opposed 
    by Irish airline bosses, who warn it would damage the country's economy.
  

    U.S. airlines have also opposed the cap, prompting their representative body and Irish carriers 
    to warn
     that the U.S. government could retaliate and restrict transatlantic flights from Dublin if the cap is not quickly scrapped.
  

 (Writing by Conor Humphries, Editing by Sam Tabahriti)
 ((conor.humphries@thomsonreuters.com; +353 1 236 1915;))