Cork Airport surges while Dublin Airport is stalled by planning

Cork Airport surged ahead in March, welcoming a total of 249,000 passengers, a 10% increase compared to March 2024. In stark contrast, passengers through Dublin Airport’s terminal doors dropped to 2.54 million, a decline of 83,000 (-3%) versus March last year.

This year’s late Easter is a factor in performance at both airports. Cork’s high numbers were achieved despite Easter not falling in March as it did last year, demonstrating the strong momentum of Ireland’s fastest growing airport. While Dublin’s passenger numbers would have been higher in March had Easter fallen then, they would still have been stagnant versus last year due to the impact of the Dublin Airport cap. This is the fourth month in a row that passenger numbers at Dublin Airport are down or flat versus the same month last year, despite strong demand from both passengers and airlines to fly in and out of Dublin. This is reflected in the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures showing tourism numbers declining in February versus the same month last year.

The closure of Heathrow Airport on Friday, March 21 also impacted numbers at both airports as 42 flights were cancelled. The Dublin – Heathrow route is the second busiest air route in Europe, with 34 flights a day (17 each way) and 6,000 passengers. The Cork – Heathrow route has eight flights a day (four each way) and 1,500 passengers. The Heathrow incident underlines the importance of continually investing in airport infrastructure to ensure resilience and avoid disruption. Both Dublin and Cork airports regularly conduct business continuity exercises and are studying what happened at Heathrow to ensure the robustness of our plans.

Cork Airport commentary

Kenny Jacobs, CEO of daa, the operator of Dublin and Cork airports said: “Cork Airport is really flying, welcoming just shy of a quarter of a million passengers last month. With a bumper St. Patrick’s weekend, lots of Six Nations charters and additional services to Birmingham for the Cheltenham Racing Festival, Cork continues to grow at lightning pace. Air France resumed its popular Cork to Paris Charles de Gaulle service early in March and Lufthansa resumed its service to Frankfurt last week, which significantly improves European hub connectivity available from Cork. It’s great to see four new routes added this summer – Bilbao, Bordeaux, Corfu and Izmir – with the first of these to Bilbao starting on April 16. Cork is experiencing significant growth and success in the first quarter of 2025.”

Dublin Airport commentary

Kenny Jacobs added: “While Cork surges, Dublin is stalled by the passenger cap and slow planning. For four months in a row, Dublin Airport had the same or less passengers than the same month last year in stark contrast to other European airports. The knock-on impacts for tourism and our economy are clear. CSO figures indicate our economy missed out on more than €88 million in February alone compared with the same period last year due to sinking tourist numbers.

“Dublin Airport’s March figures reflect the slump despite St. Patrick’s Day and Tourism Ireland doing a fantastic job last month promoting Ireland around the world. Our national tourism policy has a stated aim of 5.6% annual revenue growth from overseas visitors each year out to 2030. Achieving this depends on there being no cap on Dublin Airport.

“While we should see a bounce in April due to the late Easter and the lifting of seat restrictions for the summer period while the European courts examine these issues, the summer High Court stay does not mean the cap has gone away. The Irish Aviation Authority, which allocates slots to airlines each season, is due to share its draft decision for winter 2025/26 soon. A new High Court judgement this week means the IAA can’t apply the planning cap restrictions to the slot process until the legal proceedings conclude, but this does not remove the cap or offer a permanent solution.

“With US tariffs about to hit our economy, this is one area where Ireland has control and can take immediate action to support our economy and jobs. The government has committed to finding a solution to the cap and we strongly welcome the Taoiseach’s statement this week that all options are being looked at to fix this significant economic issue for our country. We urge a fast pace and innovative thinking in resolving the passenger cap issue once and for all. Then we hope planning can move faster so we can get on and build much needed piers and stands that add capacity.”

daa’s planning applications

daa continues to do all it can to remove the passenger cap through the planning system. In early February, daa resubmitted its ‘no build’ Operational Application (OA) to Fingal County Council (FCC) to increase passenger numbers at Dublin Airport to 36 million a year to provide a short-term solution to the terminals cap impasse impacting Ireland’s connectivity, tourism and economy. On April 1, daa received a request for further information from FCC. daa is reviewing FCC’s request to understand the scope and relevance of the information requested and its implications.

daa’s Infrastructure Application (IA) submitted to FCC in December 2023 remains under review by FCC. This seeks permission for a range of significant investments in critical infrastructure and sustainability improvements at Dublin Airport. It also seeks to increase the passenger number to 40 million. daa is unable to respond to the noise regulator’s request for further information on the IA until An Bord Pleanála (ABP) reaches a final decision on daa’s separate planning application to lift the highly restrictive operating conditions imposed on Dublin Airport’s North Runway. daa has been waiting for a final decision on this from ABP for almost three years.