Dublin Airport New Runway/Infrastructure.

I would imagine that both Ikea and Dundrum have a capacity that the building is approved for, and designed for. It would be a serious breach for them to exceed that.
Same with say Croke Park being to hold a given number of people, a set number of games, and up to 3 concerts etc.

Is there a cap on the m50 despite being chronically under capacity, as they refuse to provide reasonable public transport in problem ?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. If you are saying to increase the capacity, sure I've no issue with that. who is they?
Start a petition and I'll sign it. I don't see how that relates to the airport, a commercial operation.

The idea airport is nowhere near half capacity. I suggested previously that it’s approaching its limit. That seems pretty accurate after the planning applications lodged. As opposed to claims that the airport can handle 45, 50m, and they are being “blocked”. Both points are obviously not true.

2024 was the first year they properly exceeded the cap using a passenger count. There’s no reason the cap had to still be in place in 2024. They could have applied to raise it anytime. Definitely it should have been in by end of 2023.

The fact they were working on and lodged the 40m application first is baffling. Backwards from DAA.

Excellent article on ittn on the 85th anniversary of DUB

https://ittn.ie/travel-news/dublin-airport-formally-marks-85th-anniversary/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20ITTN%20eBulletins&utm_content=Daily%20ITTN%20eBulletins+CID_f0565e2e13d15cfc9dd732008719ab58&utm_source=CFEmail&utm_term=Dublin%20Airport%20Formally%20Marks%2085th%20Anniversary

Dublin Airport has officially marked its 85th anniversary of being a commercial airport.

A special celebration event was held on Sunday to mark 85 years since the first flight took off from what we now know as Dublin Airport.

A mix of current and former airport staff, airline workers, aviation enthusiasts and guests from the world of Irish aviation gathered in Dublin Airport’s original Old Central Terminal Building to celebrate 85 years of the airport connecting Ireland with the world.

Since the first flight departed Dublin Airport’s single grass runway on the morning of January 19, 1940, more than 700 million passengers have flown in and out of the airport. 

Originally known as Collinstown Airport, Dublin Airport has grown over the past 85 years from a solitary Aer Lingus route between Dublin and Liverpool to more than 180 destinations worldwide served by 40+ different airlines. 

Speaking at Sunday’s event at Dublin Airport, Kenny Jacobs, CEO of daa, the operator of Dublin Airport, said: “Dublin Airport has come a long over the past 85 years. From starting life with a single grass runway, a terminal built to cater for 100,000 passengers per year and one twice-weekly flight to Liverpool, Dublin Airport today sits at the heart of the national economy and acts as Ireland’s national airport, catering for more than 200,000 flights and 30 million passengers per annum. 

While the look and scale of Dublin Airport may have changed hugely since 1940, its reason for being remains the same: to connect Ireland with the world and to bring people together. On this historic day, I want to pay tribute to two sets of people that have made – and continue to make – Dublin Airport such a roaring success – the 30,000+ brilliant staff who have worked for Dublin Airport over the years and, of course, our passengers – all 700 million of them who have travelled through our terminals since 1940. 

“Dublin Airport also plays a vital role in facilitating and growing inbound tourism, enabling Irish trade and exports and in bringing foreign direct investment into the Irish economy. Dublin Airport may be located just a few miles north of Dublin, but its impact is felt every day in all 32 counties on the island of Ireland. And while we celebrate the past 85 years, we also look forward to the next 85 – and beyond – when Dublin Airport will continue to act as a vital cog in the function of this island nation and in the lives of our fast-growing population,” added Jacobs. 

From Humble Beginnings
Dublin Airport opened in 1940 with a single grass runway and one terminal building. The Airport’s award-winning original terminal building was designed to handle up to 100,000 passengers per year. Last year, Dublin Airport’s two modern terminals welcomed more than 100,000 passengers on 171 separate days. 

Over the years, Dublin Airport has been the location for many significant moments in Irish history, including visits from US Presidents and Popes, global superstars like The Beatles and Taylor Swift, as well as the homecomings of countless Irish sports and entertainment stars such as Jack Charlton’s Irish soccer heroes and boxing champions Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington. 

The airport’s evolution mirrors Ireland’s growth, transforming from a small nation to one with a vibrant, outward-looking economy. Today, Dublin Airport continues to be a critical link between Ireland and the rest of the world, supporting tourism, business, and the travel needs of families and friends. 

Birthday Celebrations 
To mark today’s 85th birthday, Dublin Airport arranged musical entertainment for passengers between 10am and 6pm in the terminals, with The Blue Belles performing in Terminal 1 Arrivals from 1.15pm to 2.45pm, while the Swing Cats put on a show in Terminal 2 Arrivals between 2pm and 4pm. 

Goodies and entertainment were in store too for passengers travelling on the 85th scheduled departure of the day – fittingly scheduled to be a Ryanair flight to Liverpool – with a special boarding gate celebration taking place. 

Dublin Airport’s first commercial flight in 1940
The first commercial flight at Dublin Airport took off shortly after 9am on a very cold Friday morning on January, 19, 1940 and was an Aer Lingus Lockheed 14 aircraft, bound for Liverpool’s Speke Airport (now known as Liverpool John Lennon Airport). 

Additional History About Dublin Airport
Dublin Airport was originally known as Collinstown Airport, as it was located in the townland of Collinstown, north of Dublin city centre. Collinstown had been used as a British Royal Flying Corps and RAF base between 1917 and 1922 but had fallen into disrepair before being selected as the site for the new Dublin Airport in late 1936. 

Work began on the airport site in 1937, as more land was acquired, and site clearance commenced for the new grass runways. Construction of the new terminal building started in the summer of 1938. 

The architect of the terminal was Desmond FitzGerald, an elder brother of former Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald, who led a team of young architects. The curved building and its tiered structure, which echoed the lines of a great ocean liner, won many architectural awards for its design. 

Collinstown Airport remained relatively quiet during the 1940s, as war raged throughout Europe. However, Aer Lingus continued to operate a twice-weekly service to Liverpool. During this period, Dublin Airport was required to observe black-outs and anti-aircraft guns were in place for defensive purposes.  

By 1947, flights departing from Dublin ventured as far as Europe with Dutch airline KLM beginning the first continental service to Dublin. New concrete runways were completed in 1948, and in 1950, after ten years in operation the airport had been used by a total of 920,000 passengers. 

Air travel was the preserve of the wealthy during this period and many Dubliners would have travelled to the airport simply as a treat to see the aircraft. The terminal building also boasted one of Dublin’s best restaurants, the Collar of Gold, which was hugely popular and not only for those travelling. 

As Dublin Airport’s route network grew and its passenger numbers expanded it, it became clear that the original terminal building had far exceeded its capacity. 

The North Terminal opened in 1959 and was used to process arriving passengers, while the old terminal remained for in place for departing passengers.   

By 1963, Dublin Airport had grown to one million passengers per year and additional facilities were again required. New boarding gate areas were added in the 1960s and work on a new terminal building began in 1969.  The new terminal building, now known as Terminal 1, opened in 1972 and was originally designed to cater for six million passengers per year. 

In November 1985, the Government approved the construction of a new runway at Dublin Airport, together with new taxiways, and a new air traffic control building. The new runway 10/28 officially opened for flights on June 21, 1989. That year, more than five million passengers used Dublin Airport. 

Passenger numbers increased to 5.8 million in 1992 and following 17 consecutive years of growth, reached 23.5 million in 2008. 

Facilities however had not kept pace with the passenger growth and between 2007 and 2010 Dublin Airport embarked on a major investment programme to transform the airport by significantly increasing capacity and dramatically improving the passenger experience.   

This programme delivered Terminal 2, two new boarding gate areas (the 100 gates and the 400 gates), a new road network, and a host of other major improvements. The new award-winning new terminal was opened in November 2010. 

In 2022, following three years of construction, disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and an investment by daa of €320 million, the airport’s new North Runway commenced operations on August 24 with the 12.00 departure of Ryanair flight FR1964 to Eindhoven. 

Dublin Airport has hosted many dignitaries and special homecomings during its 80-year history. It has welcomed eight US Presidents, two Popes, the return of many Irish Olympic medal winners, a host of Eurovision winners, the men’s and women’s Irish football teams returning from World Cups and European Championships, as well as the Irish rugby team and the Grand Slam trophy on multiple occasions. 

Dublin Airport will be posting 85th birthday related content on its award-winning social media channels using the hashtag #DUB85 throughout the year and we encourage passengers to share their fond memories of Dublin Airport with us. 

Dublin Airport: How time flies

1936 Irish Government announces plans for a civilian airport at Collinstown
1938 Work begins on the “new” original terminal building
1940 Dublin Airport opens on January 19 with a flight to Liverpool Speke Airport
1945 First Dublin Airport-London service begins to Croydon Airport
1947 KLM starts Dublin-Manchester-Amsterdam service
1948 Completion of concrete runways
1949 Passenger numbers reach 200,000 per year
1958 First scheduled transatlantic service as passenger numbers top 500,000 per year
1959 North Terminal opens
1963 Passenger numbers top 1 million for the first time
1972 Terminal 1 opens
1989 Passenger numbers reach 5 million
1990 Celebrates 50th birthday
1997 Welcomes more than 10 million passengers
2008 Passenger numbers reach a record 23.5 million
2010 Terminal 2 opens
2014 Welcomes 21.7 million passengers
2015 Celebrates 75th anniversary
2016 Passenger numbers pass 30 million for the first time
2019 Work starts on the new North Runway
2020 Dublin Airport celebrates 80th anniversary
2022 The new €320m North Runway opens on-time and on-budget
2023 A planning application – the biggest ever in State – is submitted to allow passenger numbers to grow to 40 million
2024 Passenger demand hits an all-time high, with 33.3 million passengers passing through the airport’s two terminals
2025 Celebrates its 85th anniversary

EDIT: Apologies, I forgot to add the author of this excellent article

BY GEOFF PERCIVAL January 20 2025

People keep saying that, without understanding that’s not the sequence in which development occurs.

The 32m number was arrived at due to transport limitations (which no longer apply). But the cap was put on place at planning stage. They didn’t slap it on the finished terminal.
I’d doubt FCC were calculating traffic limit and most likely it was based on a report submitted with the application.

The final design and construction of the terminal happened after that condition was in place. It was designed with that limit in mind. T2 was designed to handle 15m (as widely reported). T1 probably lost capacity to T2 in 2010.
There is redundancy in all design limits. I suggest around 10% would still be comfortable. Which has been validated by the no-build application.

It was nothing to do with the capacity of the terminals or anything else under the control of DAA.

regardless of how it came about, Since the grant of planning it is a requirement. The process of having lifted is entirely up to DAA to get rolling. Waiting until they went over is sheer incompetence. The plan for expansion past 32m should have been agreed a decade ago.

It's now become a political football for the councillors of Fingal, which is farcical.

Agree. On both sites. It's embarrassing to see two state/goverment adjacent bodies carrying on like this. Bother are appealing to the masses with half truths instead of just getting in room and sorting it out. DAA encourage the idea that if it was for the cap (that can't do anything about) they'd be doing double the flights. And are intentionally fuzzy with the numbers.

Dublin Airport operated for decades with no passenger cap. There is no justification for one. If one wants to limit movements, have a noise quota etc. and can make a case then fine but that's not what we are talking about.

Then purpose of conditioning any planning grant is to ensure proper planning and development for the future. It’s common for Airports to be approved limited in similar terms (passengers, flights, hours, etc.). I don’t think the cap is about noise per se - though that is a planning concern.

A cap was not about restricting the use of the airport. It’s was an estimate of the limit of the airport that was applied for. It served to set a limit where further development would need to be reassessed. There was never any need for it to limit the availability of even a single slot or seat.

Or look at it this way, it’s taken years to meet the cap. It’s only recent affected anything. DDA could have applied to lift I’d 5 years ago.

It's not though, for two reasons.

Firstly, the capacity of a pitch standing event in many stadiums is significantly higher than the seating capacity. The Aviva is a good example of this as the stand they lose use of for the stage is tiny; so the concert capacity is about 14k higher.

Secondly, the correct analogy would be to have calculated a cap assuming that every single event was at 82k and refusing to allow a second game be added to a make a double header between two club sides; because the first game is already on and notionally has 82k going to it; even when it probably has 10k and only the hurling final has 82k. There are huge swathes of the day that the airport is vastly below capacity; and those are the times of day flights would be added.

Aviva is still designed to hold that capacity on the field. It's not a case of squeezing in extra people.

Secondly, the correct analogy would be to have calculated a cap assuming that every single event was at 82k and refusing to allow a second game be added to a make a double header between two club sides; because the first game is already on and notionally has 82k going to it; even when it probably has 10k and only the hurling final has 82k. There are huge swathes of the day that the airport is vastly below capacity; and those are the times of day flights would be added.

That analogy doesn't make any sense eiher. The capacity limit of Croker is people at any one time.

The Croker analogy would be the stadium being approved for 3 concerts per year. Then refusing to grant a promoter a license for 5 concerts because it exceeds that limit. And it perfectly reasonable to not grant it in that case.

(and even that example is imperfect as Croker could hold far more concerts, where as airport infrastructure as physical limits).

For absolute clarity, there was no suggestion the building fire cert capacity is related to the passenger cap. It was a response to a question about ikea.

It wasn't a limit set because of the capacity of the proposed terminal or the proposed runway, it was a limit set because of surface transport capacity restrictions which are no longer applicable.

I explained above why that logic is flawed. The road transport restriction no longer existing doesn't make the airport as constructed magically increase capacity. Therefore your "On that basis" that followed is meaningless.
It's not a noise (or movement) cap. Using the fact it is not a noise cap as justification for not having being a noise cap is circular logic.

It's a passenger cap based on the functional capacity of the airport. There is some excess capacity, but it cannot achieve 40m now. It should be increased to 40m, alongside the planned upgrades to achieve 40m. (planning application 1).

In the interim, there is justification to increase the no-build cap to 36m. (planning app 2). If the FCC wanted to take the higher ground they could approved that as part of app 1 - which is likely due soon.
(The DDA's 36m was based on a double count of passengers, not sure why they did that)

"This is not the case. As has been explained multiple times."

Except for the giant problem in your argument that it it actually is the reason given in the planning which put it in place…

Your argument is circular and confused.

You directly denied it.

Your argument makes no sense because you are contradicting yourself and running around in circles.

Step back and read it again and you may realise that.

Two quoted posts ago.

At this point I'm unsure if *you* understand what you posted let alone anyone else getting it. Confused circular argument.

You directly contradicted it. There is nothing to misunderstand here.

I'm not wasting any more time with someone who can't remember what they wrote, or can't see how their arguments are contradictory.

Read everything you posted again and you'll see that you're trying to deny what you wrote now.

I'm not intended to come across as arrogant. I'm genuinely trying to have a discussion.
The planning process is not something that the average person has an understanding of. There are a lot of misunderstandings, generally about planning and design generally and specifically about the airport. I'm trying to provide information and context were I can.
For example somebody complained (it might have been you) that FCC were dragging it out with public consultation. I pointed out that it's a legal requirement, the times frames are fixed. I think it's more beneficial to be aware of that then ranting in an echo chamber.
I have a good idea of the history, but not claiming know it all of it. I complex and there could be details i'm not aware of. If I make a mistake, by all means point that out or question it. But it's unless it's that's backed with details, facts, etc. Just shouting that a poster is wrong is a worthless opinion.

You denied it in other posts, when trying to defend your weird analogy. This is my entire point - you are posting contradictory statements, denying actual things happened and bundling everything in to a circular mess.

Your arguments are so confused, you don't even understand them yourself.

Forgot I said I wasn't going to waste any more time on you, d'oh.