Daa in Linkedin post Thursday 21 March stated Dublin Airport should be allowed to grow beyond 32 million passengers citing support of business, of most politicians and also the general public, according to a series of recently published surveys.
In an Linkedin Post Executive Chairman at Emerald Airlines & Dublin Aerospace Conor McCarthy stated “Ireland is an island nation – hugely dependent on aviation for tourism, business, VFR and Freight movements. Dublin Airport has a brand new third runway built at the cost of €350M to cater for growth. A passenger cap makes no sense.”
The move is backed by home based carriers Aer Lingus, Emerald Airlines and Ryanair and international carriers including British Airways, Emirates Airlines, Egyptair, Etihad Airways, Jetblue Airways and Westjet.
The business community is behind the plan to grow Dublin Airport, including leading groups such as Ibec, IDA Ireland, Dublin Chamber, Fingal Chamber, Enterprise Ireland, American Chamber of Commerce Ireland and US industry group Airlines for America (A4A).
This is backed up by public support in recent opinion polls. Recently on The Journal website where 7 out of ten (68%) of the 10,000+ respondents stated a view that Dublin Airport should be allowed to grow beyond 32 million.
In late February by A Red C poll featured in the Sunday Business Post ,found that twice as many people support lifting the cap at Dublin Airport than oppose it. The survey found that half of people (47%) interviewed support expansion at the airport while 32% had ‘no strong opinion’. The Red C survey found strong cross-party political support too, with two-thirds of Fianna Fáil voters (63%), more than half of Fine Gael voters (55%) and half of Sinn Féin voters (49%) stating that they are in favour of increasing the cap.
These findings were backed up by a Irish Tourism Industry Confederation – ITIC stated this week raising the cap at Dublin Airport as one of the five enablers of Government they have identified to help businesses deal with current challenges, stating that the 32 million limit “stymies tourism growth”.
On 15 December 2023 Dublin airport submitted a planning application to Fingal County Council to grow from 32 million to 40 million passengers per annum, allowing new routes and airlines come to Ireland, bringing more tourists, more jobs and more economic growth.
Join the campaign on digital channels using hashtag RaiseTheCap
Image Credit: Dublin Airport
Irish Aviation Research Institute © 22 March 2024 All Rights Reserved
