{"id":234365,"date":"2026-01-08T14:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T14:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/234365\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T14:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T14:55:10","slug":"american-airlines-file-complaint-to-us-transport-officials-over-dublin-airport-passenger-cap-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/234365\/","title":{"rendered":"American airlines file complaint to US transport officials over Dublin Airport passenger cap \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US airlines have filed a formal complaint against Dublin Airport<\/a>\u2019s passenger cap with the United States Department of Transport, claiming it breaches Ireland\u2019s legal obligations. <\/p>\n

Responding to the complaint, the Taoiseach confirmed the Government intends to remove the cap through legislation, which received Cabinet approval last year.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Shanghai at the end of a four-day visit to China, Miche\u00e1l Martin said the decision has been made, and the legislation is being drafted. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government has made a very clear decision,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe cap will be removed, and that will be ruled by legislation, and that will happen. And the legislation is being drafted right now. And that was approved some time ago by the Government. There\u2019s no question in my mind that that has to be delivered upon,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Airlines for America (A4A)<\/a>, which represents the US airline industry, said the cap on the maximum number of passengers travelling through Dublin Airport, which has been set at 32 million per year since 2008, violates European Union (EU) regulations and transport agreements with the US. It described it as \u201can unjustifiable and unreasonable discriminatory and anticompetitive practice\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"\"Ireland\u2019s record tax take makes light of Trump tariffs fear<\/p>\n

The complaint under the US International Air Transportation Fair Competitive Practices Act claims that enforcing the cap, which was breached in 2023 and 2024, could result in some US airlines losing their existing slot rights as capacity at the airport is limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason US carriers have not yet lost historic slots at Dublin Airport is because A4A, along with Aer Lingus and Ryanair, are challenging the passenger cap in the Irish High Court and successfully obtained a stay of the passenger cap while the legal challenge continues,\u201d the complaint said. <\/p>\n

It called on the US government to enforce the provisions of the US-EU Air Transport Agreement. <\/p>\n

Airport operator DAA <\/a>has submitted a planning application to Fingal County Council<\/a> to increase the cap to 40 million. However, a decision is not expected on that until next year. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Senior civil servants resist plan to scrap Dublin Airport passenger cap, Minister saysOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Minister for Transport, Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> said he does not believe a cap should be imposed on passenger numbers in the airport at all. However, proposals to scrap the cap have met resistance from senior civil servants. <\/p>\n

The Minister received Cabinet approval in late September to draft legislation to end the cap and reclassify the airport as national infrastructure for planning purposes. That could take months to complete, with Mr O\u2019Brien aiming for full enactment by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for Mr O\u2019Brien said work is progressing \u201cat pace\u201d on the preparation of the legislation, and the minister will bring the heads of bill to Cabinet \u201cshortly to seek agreement on \u201cthe proposed legislative approach\u201d. <\/p>\n

The spokeswoman said that it is \u201cworth noting\u201d that the passenger cap \u201ccurrently has no effect on the allocation of slots at Dublin Airport\u201d, because of the stay the High Court has placed on its application, pending the outcome of decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union.<\/p>\n

In its complaint, A4A claims the Government could remove the cap immediately through emergency legislation. <\/p>\n

Ryanair <\/a>welcomed the move, saying the Government\u2019s failure to deliver on promises to scrap the limit was \u201can international embarrassment for Ireland\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIreland now faces censure in the EU courts over this illegal airport traffic cap, and now runs the real risk that the US Dept of Transport will block Aer Lingus flights landing in the US, solely because Miche\u00e1l Martin \u2013 with a 20 seat majority \u2013 has failed for 13 months to do anything to deliver his Government promise to scrap this illegal cap \u2018as soon as possible\u2019,\u201d Ryanair chief executive Michael O\u2019Leary said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US airlines have filed a formal complaint against Dublin Airport\u2019s passenger cap with the United States Department of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[119430,72,11900,61,60,119432,1899,119431],"class_list":{"0":"post-234365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-airport-cap","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dublin-airport","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-passenger-cap","14":"tag-ryanair","15":"tag-us-airlines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}