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The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today published the coordination parameters which sets Dublin Airport’s Summer 2025 Capacity. The parameters define how many aircraft may be scheduled to use Dublin airport at a particular time. These parameters will be used in the airport slot allocation process. The Summer 2025 scheduling season runs from 30 March to 25 October 2025. In making its decision, the IAA has taken account of the approximately 70 responses received in response to the consultation, which closed on 26 September.

The IAA is responsible for the implementation of the EU Airport Slot Regulation¹. The Slot Regulation aims to ensure that, where airport capacity is scarce, the maximum available capacity is identified and distributed in a fair and transparent way by means of the allocation of take-off and landing slots by an independent coordinator, according to rules set out in the Slot Regulation, and based on the capacity identified for the airport concerned. Capacity is declared to the detailed level of up to 10 minute intervals.

The IAA’s role includes identifying and determining the maximum available capacity at Dublin Airport and setting the consequent parameters for slot allocation. The IAA is required to take account of all relevant technical, operational and environmental constraints. Such constraints may include the capacity of runways, airspace capacity, availability of aircraft stands, various passenger processes such as check-in and security screening, and planning constraints imposed on daa by the planning authorities in the form of planning conditions.

In 2007, An Bord Pleanála imposed a planning condition on daa’s development of Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport, which limits the combined capacity of Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport to a maximum of 32 million passengers per annum. This planning condition remains in existence, and is limiting the available slot capacity below the capacity of the physical infrastructure.

To take account of the capacity constraint represented by the planning condition set by An Bord Pleanála, the IAA has set a seat capacity limit of 25.2 million seats for the Summer 2025 scheduling season. This is in line with what the IAA proposed in its Draft Decision and the proposal put forward by daa, the operator of Dublin Airport, during the deliberations of the coordination committee, in which daa also stated that the IAA should have regard to the condition. The members of the coordination committee include Dublin Airport and the air carriers using Dublin Airport. The committee is tasked by the Slot Regulation with advising the IAA in respect of the coordination parameters to be declared.

This decision makes Summer 2025 the second scheduling season to take account of the An Bord Pleanála 32m passengers per annum planning condition constraint. For Winter 2024 (26 October 2024 to 29 March 2025) the seat cap is 14.4m. The decision for Summer 2025 results in a total seat capacity of 39.6m across the two seasons. The seat cap is greater than the passenger cap as it takes account of expected load factors (how many passengers are expected on each flight relative to the total number of seats on the aircraft), and an adjustment for transfer passengers.

The IAA anticipates that the demand for slots for the Summer 2025 scheduling season will significantly exceed the 25.2m seat cap. In line with the Slot Regulation, air carriers who have operated series of slots (5 weeks or longer) in the Summer 2024 season will be given priority, on initial coordination, in relation to those series for Summer 2025. However, the IAA anticipates that not all slot series from Summer 2024 will be capable of being accommodated within the seat cap.

In addition, the IAA anticipates that, like Winter 2024, this decision will result in very little, if any, available capacity for new slot requests, or for ad hoc slot requests, for passenger flights using the capacity of Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 during the Summer 2025 scheduling season. Such an outcome, and its implications for airlines, Dublin Airport and the travelling public are a consequence of the An Bord Pleanála planning condition itself.

The role of the IAA does not encompass any powers to amend or revoke planning conditions or make any decision to enforce or not enforce conditions. These are all matters to be determined by the planning authorities, such as Fingal County Council. The IAA notes, that if the 32m planning condition was not a relevant constraint for Summer 2025, the IAA would be declaring a significantly higher terminal, and therefore airport, capacity. Accordingly, this would facilitate all Summer 2024 slot series, and anticipated growth and new entrants in the Season, including ad hoc slots.

The coordination parameters are available on the IAA’s website: https://www.iaa.ie/commercial-aviation/economic-regulation/slot-allocation/documents---slots

The parameters are published today to confirm the IAA’s decision for the next steps in the coordination process for Summer 2025.

The detailed decision document setting out the IAA’s reasons in relation to this decision, and the consultation responses will be published in the coming days.

¹EU COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 95/93, on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 793/2004.

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