EU Court to Decide Fate of Dublin Airport's Passenger Cap Soon

A group of airlines—Aer Lingus, Ryanair and a consortium of U.S. carriers—filed a lawsuit in 2024 challenging the 32 million-passenger ceiling applied by Irish regulators to Dublin Airport slot allocations. The Irish High Court sent the unresolved questions to the EU Court of Justice, which is set to rule on October 15, likely confirming that the Irish Aviation Authority must consider the cap when assigning slots. An advocate general’s non-binding opinion from February supported the regulator’s approach, and EU courts usually align with such views.

However, new Irish legislation this summer empowers Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien to raise or remove the limit, and the airport operator DAA has asked him to increase it to 40 million, potentially sidelining the EU judgment. Meanwhile, the IAA has added 28 summer-2027 slots without applying the cap, and a senior industry source says the next chance to enforce the limit could be the winter-2027/28 slot allocation in April.