DAA 10% FEES INCREASE DAMAGES IRELAND’S TRAFFIC, TOURISM & JOBS

Ryanair, Europe and Ireland’s No.1 airline, today (Wed, 17 Dec) condemned DAA’s decision to raise its already high airport fees by 10% from 2026. DAA is again abusing its monopoly to force passengers into funding its €3bn gold-plated CAPEX programme, including unnecessary projects like DAA’s €280m “tunnel to nowhere” – a nonsensical project at Dublin Airport – paid for by passengers through higher airport fees, yet it delivers zero benefit to them.

Dublin Airport’s 10% fee hike in 2026 is the opposite of what competitor countries, like Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia are doing, where Govts and airports are abolishing aviation taxes and lowering airport fees to promote airline investment and deliver traffic, tourism, and jobs growth.

Irish tourism is already suffering under two stupid traffic caps at Dublin Airport – which Micheál Martin’s “do nothing” Govt continues to dither over, and this latest unjustified Dublin Airport fee hike will damage Irish traffic and tourism even more.

Ryanair calls on the DAA to stop wasting money and instead cut costs to grow Ireland’s traffic, tourism, jobs, and economy.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“DAA has jumped at the first opportunity to hike its already high prices by another 10% to cover its gold plated €3bn CAPEX programme, which it won’t deliver any extra capacity or growth. It’s bad enough that Micheál Martin’s “do nothing” Govt (with a 20-seat majority) has still not scrapped the Dublin Airport traffic cap, despite promising to do so “as soon as possible” last January. Now Dublin Airport is raising fees by 10% in 2026 so they can build tunnels to nowhere which is driving up costs for passengers simply because it’s a monopoly.

Instead of wasting money on unwanted tunnels, the DAA should lower its high fees to grow Irish tourism, jobs – not penalise airlines and passengers with higher fees. Ryanair calls on the DAA to stop wasting money on ridiculous €280m tunnels and instead lower fees to grow Ireland’s connectivity and tourism, before it switches elsewhere in Europe where airports are lowering fees to promote airline investment and low-fare growth.”