Ireland's Fingal County Council has issued an enforcement notice on daa to reduce the number of night flights at Dublin Airport to a maximum of 65 between 11pm and 7am.
Issued on 28 July, the notice read that the airport operator has six weeks to comply with the notice. The council said the notice comes following complaints about night time flights at the airport.
Reacting to the development, daa, the operator of Dublin Airport said in a statement ,
daa, the operator of Dublin Airport, is disappointed by Fingal County Council’s decision and to provide only six weeks for Dublin Airport to comply with a notice to reduce the number of night flights to a maximum of 65 between 11pm and 7am.
An enforcement order, in the middle of the peak summer holiday season, comes despite the fact that Fingal County Council has already confirmed that having a cap on the number of night flights is no longer a fit-for-purpose way of determining how many flights should operate at night time and recommended that a more appropriate noise quota should be introduced. This recommendation from Fingal County Council has been in the planning system since 2020.
daa is calling on Fingal County Council to: suspend these overly onerous conditions. This would avoid any needless disruption to peoples’ travel plans and airlines’ cargo operations.
The Planning Authority carried out an investigation into alleged breaches of Condition 5 of the planning permission for the North Runway at Dublin Airport.
On completion of construction of the runway hereby permitted, the average number of night time aircraft movements at the airport shall not exceed 65/night (between 2300 hours and 0700 hours) when measured over the 92 day modelling period as set out in the reply to the further information request received by An Bord Pleanála on the 5th day of March 2007.
Runway 10L-28R shall not be used for take-off or landing between 2300 hours and 0700 hours except in cases of safety, maintenance considerations, exceptional air traffic conditions, adverse weather, technical faults in air traffic control systems or declared emergencies at other airports.
Meanwhile , Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary accepts the restriction period cut to between the hours of midnight and 6am, and said this would allow for most early morning flights to take off without disruption.
He has termed the enforcement order "stupid" and "idiotic", saying a "tiny number of neighbours" cannot be allowed to restrict Irish air connectivity.
The council issued the notice after carrying out the investigation. It requires daa to reduce the number of flights within six weeks, as well as to pay the council €350 for costs and expenses incurred by it in relation to the investigation.
Given the reason the current planning application has not been fully adjudicated on is due to repeated delays to statutory processes and planning decisions,
.daa calls on the State to ensure An Bord Pleanála has the resources it needs to issue its verdict within six months on whether it agrees with daa and Fingal County Council that the introduction of a noise quota system, the industry standard approach for managing night-time noise at large airports, is the best way forward.
Dublin Airport says that thay have got the second runway to deal with peak capacity , but they do need that night capacity and want it kept over that level.
The statement called on Fingal County Council to suspend the “overly onerous conditions” or give at least the six months that the council has acknowledged is available under its planning laws.
“This would avoid any needless disruption to peoples’ travel plans and airlines’ cargo operations,” daa said.
daa CEO Kenny Jacobs said the enforcement notice would mean the number of night flights across Dublin Airport’s two runways would be lower than before North Runway opened.
“It would be like increasing the number of seats in Croke Park to 100,000 but cutting the capacity for games to 50,000. It makes no sense, and the travelling public deserves better,” he said.
He said Fingal County Council’s decision would be “bad for the Irish consumer, bad for the Irish economy, bad for Ireland’s connectivity with the world and bad for the effective operation of Dublin Airport”.
“We now face an unnecessary situation whereby Fingal County Council requires its interpretation of these onerous operating conditions to be applied at Dublin Airport – and within just six weeks. "
"Unreasonably, this would mean the number of flights operating on Dublin Airport’s two runways between 11pm and 7am would be lower than before North Runway opened and when it only had one runway. It would be like increasing the number of seats in Croke Park to 100,000 but cutting the capacity for games to 50,000. It makes no sense, and the travelling public deserves better.”
“Daa is fully committed to balancing the needs of a major international airport, one that is a vital economic driver and facilitator of the Irish economy, with the needs of local people.
“We are also committed to working in close co-operation with Fingal County Council and we call on them to see sense on this issue and avoid unnecessary disruption to flights and protect connectivity and jobs.”
daa is currently waiting for documents from Fingal County Council to establish the reasons for this decision and what would be required for the relevant authorities to facilitate compliance, and which may require a number of night flights at Dublin Airport to be cut.
Mr O'Leary called on Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to instruct Fingal County Council to withdraw their enforcement notice. He added if the minister fails to intervene he should resign.
Worth noting , in the year 2022 , 28.1 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport - a figure just 15% lower than the year before the pandemic.
