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The chief executive of Aer Lingus has said there needs to be urgent action to resolve the passenger cap issue at Dublin Airport.
Lynne Embleton said she would like to see more leadership now from the Government on the matter.
The airline boss said the passenger cap challenge is one of the most significant issues which Aer Lingus is facing.
“As I’ve said before, this hasn’t been well managed and the daa should have acted a lot sooner and I believe they should have made an interim planning application by now,” she told media on a conference call following the publication of parent IAG’s first quarter results.
“Dublin Airport is a really important national infrastructure and we’re at a point where the passenger cap will increasingly likely impact the economy and the travelling public in just a few months’ time,” the airline boss said.
Asked would Aer Lingus take legal action over the Irish Aviation Authority’s decision earlier this week to limit airline seat capacity at the airport this winter because of the passenger cap, Ms Embleton said it would consider it carefully.
“But I think importantly there now needs to be urgent action to resolve this and I’d like to see more leadership now from the Government on this topic,” she added.
Her comments were echoed by IAG chief executive Luis Gallego, who said progress needs to be made on resolving the issue.
“We believe that Dublin Airport should urgently make a planning application for an interim increase in the passenger cap, while the larger infrastructure and 40 million passenger application is being considered,” he said.
Last year, Dublin Airport had 31.9 million passengers use its facilities, just short of the 32 million cap that was put in place as part of planning permission for the second runway at the facility.
The airport has lodged a planning application for new infrastructure which would also see the passenger cap increased to 40 million. However, a decision on that proposal is likely to take some time.
“If I look at the winter coming it, it looks likely that this could impact through the economy and the travelling public,” said Ms Embleton.
“So ad hoc flights, these are things like flights to Lapland, taking kids to see Santa, ski charters and sporting events, both taking fans to and from sporting events, but also the teams themselves,” she said.
“So this this is unnecessary impact on the economy and on the Irish public and it’s time that we have action,” she added.
Despite the Aer Lingus call for Government intervention, the Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan has repeatedly said previously that the Government cannot intervene on the issue because it is a planning matter.
“The form of that intervention I don’t think I’m best placed to describe,” Ms Embleton said.
“But I don’t believe we can have a situation now where national infrastructure and the interest of the economy and of the travelling public are seriously harmed – something needs to change here,” she cautioned.
Ad hoc flights account for around 2% of Aer Lingus’ normal flying and 3-4% of its profitability, Ms Embleton noted.
But she added that the IAA’s decision on the winter capacity sets a precedent for what may happen next summer.
“And if you think that there’s been growth at Dublin in 2024, that we have economic opportunities and growth that we want to do for 2025, then the seriousness of this issue and the magnitude of the impact ramps up as we get into next year,” she said.
“Our planning horizons are such that we have aircraft, we recruit all of our staff well in advance from the beginning of the season. So whilst winter might seem a long way away to many, given that the sun shining, it’s very close from our planning perspective,” she stated.
The Aer Lingus CEO said for the airline to have its plans curtailed by the cap, when the airport has been encouraging new entrants into the market, is particularly challenging.
In relation to an ongoing pay dispute with pilots that led to the group’s first new Airbus A321XLR, which was due to come to Aer Lingus, being allocated to Iberia instead, Mr Gallego said it is not yet clear where the next aircraft will go when it is ready.
“You know that in this group we need to have certainty about the returns that we have in order to invest in the different airlines and in the case of Aer Lingus now we need to have a cost certainty,” he said.
“So we took the decision that the first aircraft that initially was thought to go to Aer Lingus is going to Iberia. But we have 14 XLR and we will need to take a decision still about the others,” he said.
“So the only thing that is clear is that this first aircraft won’t go to Aer Lingus and we will take a decision about the rest,” he added.
Earlier, Aer Lingus reported an operating loss of €82m for the first quarter of 2024, in line with its performance the same time last year.
The airline noted that the first quarter of the year is typically the weakest quarter of the year for it and the latest quarterly loss follows a full year 2023 operating profit of €225m.
Aer Lingus said that while revenue increased and overall capacity grew by 4% compared to the first quarter of 2023, adding that its operating loss was due to higher costs.
It noted that the increased capacity reflected an early Easter and more premium leisure traffic. Capacity on North American routes increased by 2% with Europe up 7%.
Aer Lingus said it will operate its biggest ever North American network this Summer including the start of new services from Dublin to Minneapolis St. Paul and Denver and an expanded European leisure network.
“Our Q1 2024 financial results were in line with Q1 2023 in what is typically the weakest quarter of the year,” Aer Lingus CEO Lynne Embleton said.
“We are committed to our growth strategy for Aer Lingus that will benefit the company, our employees, our customers, and the economy,” the CEO said.
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