Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Thurs 23 Jan) announced its record Summer schedule for Dublin with 123 routes, including 1 new route to Rabat (Morocco’s sunny capital), as well as extra flights on 18 existing popular routes, like Faro, Ibiza, Malta, Milan, and Valencia.

This is the first time that Ryanair has been able to grow capacity at Dublin Airport since the IAA enforced the outdated and artificial traffic cap in May 2024 that blocked access to the capital city of an island economy to the detriment of Ireland’s tourism industry, job creation, and wider economic development.

As a result of Ryanair’s successful appeal to the High Court, the artificial traffic cap has now been suspended for Summer 2025. The suspension of the traffic cap, coupled with daa’s reduced airport charges for next-gen aircraft, will enable Ryanair to grow traffic and tourism to Ireland this Summer with our newer, quieter, and lower emitting aircraft. Ryanair will increase its total Dublin-based fleet to 34 (a $3.4bn investment) for Summer 2025 – including the addition of 14 new Boeing “Gamechanger” aircraft which reduce CO₂ and noise emissions by 16% and 40% respectively.

Today’s investment is only possible as a result of the temporary suspension of the Dublin traffic cap for Summer 2025 while its legality has been referred to the EU Court of Justice. While Ryanair believes that the EU Court of Justice will deem this artificial restriction on passengers’ free movement at Ireland’s main airport illegal, there is still no long-term certainty beyond Summer 2025. The only long-term solution is for the Dublin traffic cap to be scrapped completely so it can properly utilise its 2 runways and 2 terminals which can cater for up to 60m passengers p.a.

Ryanair calls on Ireland’s new Transport Minister to abolish the Dublin Airport traffic cap as the new Govt’s first initiative, which would lead to growth in traffic, connectivity, tourism, employment, and foreign direct investment on the island of Ireland for the rest of 2025 and for years to come.

Ryanair CEO, Eddie Wilson, said:

“We are pleased to announce growth for Dublin this Summer, where we are adding 1 new based aircraft (34 total) and 1 new route to Rabat (123 total), as well as extra flights on 18 existing Ryanair routes to/from Dublin. This growth is a direct result of the temporary suspension of the outdated traffic cap at Dublin Airport for Summer 2025, following our successful submission to the High Court and the subsequent referral of the traffic cap’s legality to the EU Court of Justice.

We will also be responding to daa’s reduced airport charges for next-gen aircraft by swapping 14 of our current Dublin-based aircraft for 14 new Boeing ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft, which are more environmentally efficient, cutting CO2 emissions by 16% and noise by 40%.

While this is great news for Irish passengers in the short-term, the long-term problem has not gone away and while we are confident that the EU Court of Justice will deem the Dublin traffic cap illegal, there is currently no certainty that Dublin will be able to grow beyond Summer 2025. Therefore, we need the new Transport Minister to take this unique opportunity and make abolishment of the Dublin traffic cap the new Govt’s no.1 priority, which would allow Ryanair to grow Ireland’s traffic 50% to 30m passenger p.a. by 2030. If the new Transport Minister fails to rid of this ridiculous traffic cap, as their predecessor did, then they risk Dublin’s traffic growth stagnating once again to the detriment of Ireland’s tourism, jobs, and economy.”