Dublin Airport New Runway/Infrastructure.

" Looks like pre clearance queue was under a lot of pressure yesterday morning." At that length of queue you have to wonder what value preclearance has, post USPC its not a nice place at all even if you shell out for 51st and Green as the whole circus is crammed into a small enough space with no restaurants , at least with a non USPC departure you know you will get on the plane and get to the USA eventually. Yes you will need to do border screening and customs at the other end either way but I can't see the value here ( and I've been through both a LOT of times)

I've gone through preclearance probably 50 times in the last decade and never once seen a queue like that. Also fly through T2 tens of times a year and have never once seen queues coming up into the main area like that either.

There must have been some unusual mistake or mess up somewhere surely?

The area is already at capacity 9a-1p imo, that's before the additional MSP (DL & EI) & DEN. JetBlue is another 150+ pax going through there at peak time.

I honestly prefer to use Shannon & connect in BOS/JFK than suffering DUB at this point for a direct flight. Particularly now DL are running a 767 on the JFK route.

The afternoon flights are fine (which are LAX, IAD #2, ORD, JFK & BOS I think), its not as crowded.

The real niche CBP pro-tip I think is to fly DUB→AMS→AUA→ the US. AUA has by an absolute mile the most relaxed US border clearance I've ever experienced.

Slightly harder to make work logistically I'll admit, but sure its a good excuse for a few days on the beach in Aruba.

Yep exactly even if you take out the first flight to USA ( which I think is still the United to Newark) post preclearance is horrible its an 0920 so if you want a breakfast you can't get any serious options

Interesting, I've found AUA to be one of the most chilled airports I've been through, possibly only behind USM! And especially to clear US immigration at, the immigration officials actually seem happy with life there, fairly uniquely. But I've never had checked luggage which may be a factor.

Probably veering wildly off topic for DUB infrastructure though so I'll stop there.

Another Ireland inflicted shambles. Can we do anything right?

Kenny Jacobs says "other airports don't get it". That's either after or during laughing their asses off and looking forward to the business that would have come here, but now won't.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/0501/1446839-passenger-cap-at-dublin-airport-will-cost-jobs-daa-warns/

Interesting piece.

2.87m passengers in April, when the “other passengers” are added to the terminal figure. Up 1%, even with the loss of the EI Gatwick service and Easter taking place earlier in March this year. Not bad considering the cap. https://www.dublinairport.com/latest-news/2024/05/03/dublin-airport-welcomed-over-2.7-million-passengers-in-april

Regarding the infrastructure application, the daa are three months into their six month time frame to return the requested information. Hopefully some movement on that should happen soon, as I expect they working hard behind closed doors to get this done asap.

Also read recently the daa are thinking about lodging another, simplified planning application to raise the cap quickly.

Possible some airlines may take legal action against the IAA in relation to the slots issued in the coming months.

Maybe they expect to breach it and not be punished? Or that the cap will have been lifted by Dec2024 so any overrun before then won't matter?

What exactly is meant to happen as punishment if its breached?

Youd have to wonder instead of constantly adding more gates and optomg for frequency. What about charging larger aircraft less ?

The amount of connectimg passengers seems very low for a " hub" and as a % of total traffic.

Also in that article it mentions the cap stopping new routes. Who is gokmg to lsinch routes to brazil etc ? Aer lingus ? Lol

latam were in talks last year. Definitely wouldn’t be aer Lingus.

The latest from the IAA shows how mad the Dublin passenger cap is. Limiting the numbers to 14.5 million in the winter period means limiting numbers at largely off-peak months. Given that the cap is supposed to be related to the capacity of the existing road access infrastructure, this makes no sense. If anything they shold be encouraging more use at off-peak times if the problem is one of road congestion.

This is nonsense from the IAA, pandering to the frankly mad attitude of Fingal Co Counillors. Not helped by Greens who are hostile to aviation (of course they will deny this). And FF and FG are totally lacking in courage and decisiveness on this issue,

https://www.businesspost.ie/news/airfares-to-rise-as-regulator-moves-to-further-limit-passenger-numbers-through-dublin-this-winter/

If they build the tunnel does that put an end to any notion of levelling that pier and rebuilding it (making it longer)?

I know they’ve a passenger cap at the moment but it’s just the DAA way unfortunately, adding on little extensions as a short term solution. There’ll be five new transatlantic routes this summer alone so no doubt there’ll be long waits for stands for the foreseeable.

This Government has less than a year to run (and might call an election in the autumn). Under Simon Harris, the focus is reported to be on a limited number of deliverables (and presumably those that matter most to voters) that can be progressed within the time available. The quagmire that is the planning, development and capacity issues at DUB probably doesn't meet that test.

Is this serious? I thought it was a joke (Dublin to Vegas)

This is already being discussed on the Aer Lingus Fleet and Route thread. Not really relevant to this thread. There’s also a couple of Dublin Airport Route threads which this topic would be proper to also rather than an infrastructure thread.

One of the issues is; where do you decant all the existing traffic to whilst you demolish and rebuild a pier? There is no spare room anywhere.

Dublin Airport is one of the few capital/major airports in the world that does not publish a Masterplan, which should set out the 25 year vision in some detail, and also be revised every five years. It may well have such a plan, but it isn’t published.

The whole planning environment in Ireland, at least as far as airport development is concerned, is dysfunctional. A lack of political will, which is affected by which way the wind blows, how near to an election, etc. is at the heart of it; there’s no strategic, long range planning. Such a shame, because some enlightened group did an excellent job back in the late 1960s. Where are their successors?

The planning authorities, Fingal CoCo and An Bord Pleanala, take years to make decisions. The requests for further information are numerous. The whole thing needs a major overhaul. Will that happen? I think we probably know the answer.

Meanwhile, caps limit the ability of the airport to provide for airlines which want to serve Ireland. We are turning business (=income) away as a country. It’s got to be madness.

Maybe if they weren't forced to charge such low landing fees…

Whatever about ABP, FCC are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.

Maybe the only way the passenger cap issue will be resolved is for the DAA to do nothing, so sometime in Novembebr or December the cap will be breached. Then either (a) there is no real action, in the good old Irish tradition of poor enforcement of regulations, or (b) the planners order no more passengers to be handled for the next 4 to 8 weeks (including Christmas). This would provole such a crisis that the Government would have to enact whatever emergency legislation was necessary to resolve things.

And of course all thhis might well be in the run up to a General Election.

FCC made a decision under current planning law. The only way for Government to override this is to have amending legislation drafted and enacted. That requires the Government to agree a unified position and ultimately for both Houses of the Oireachtas and the President to effect whatever changes might be involved. How likely is this in the short-term? Not very, in my view.