Mullingar businessman and Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has warned against passenger caps at Dublin Airport, with flights to London potentially costing up to €500 this Christmas.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, O’Leary said that no extra slots had been approved at Dublin Airport.
“We can’t run slots at Christmas,” said O’Leary. Nobody’s going to be allowed to run extra flights and therefore the fares this Christmas will be probably double or triple what they have been in recent years. There won’t be enough capacity to fulfil the demand.”
“We think the fares will be about €500 one-way.”
Ryanair had said that a reduction of up 1 million passengers would be needed to make sure the airport’s 32 million per year ceiling is not breached next year.
O’Leary also commented that prices in the 2025 summer period will be “much higher” if passenger numbers decrease.
He warned that “real damage” would be done to Irish tourism and jobs if there was a passenger cap reduction and would result in much higher air fares for Irish flyers going abroad in the summer of 2025.
O’Leary also fired a warning to the Government and Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, to completely scrap the cap, arguing that previous concerns such as road traffic were no longer an issue.
“Minister Ryan should instruct the Irish Aviation Authority to ignore this 17-year-old cap,” demanded the Ryanair CEO.
