Ryanair announces Leinster Rugby to fly from Belfast instead of Dublin Airport due to passenger cap controversy

Ryanair has arranged to fly the Leinster rugby team to their European matches this season from Belfast instead of Dublin airport, the airline said on Monday, amid an ongoing scandal over the annual passenger cap at the aviation hub.

The airline, which recently wrote to Transport Minister Eamon Ryan asking him to order the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to allocate additional slots to avoid a winter crisis, said the former Green Party leader had “failed” to act, forcing the team to arrange travel from Belfast for away matches in the European Rugby Champions Cup and United Rugby Championship this season.

Affected matches include Leinster’s game against La Rochelle in January as well as away games at Bristol and Cardiff.

A Leinster Rugby spokesman declined to comment.

With record numbers of passengers passing through the airport this year, Dublin Airport operator DAA is hoping to exceed the annual limit of 32 million passengers per year this year by around one million passengers.

This would be a breach of the 2007 An Bord Pleanála decision, which set a cap on passenger numbers at the airport as a condition of planning permission for the new northern runway.

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The DAA has asked Fingal County Council to raise the cap to £40 million, but a final decision is not expected for some time.

Against this backdrop, the IAA first introduced in May a capacity limit of 14.4 million seats at the airport for the 2024 winter season, from October 2024 to March 2025. This means that additional winter slots – usually granted to airlines for the period around Christmas due to travel demand during the season – will not be available this year.

But in a statement on Monday, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said the minister had the power under the Aviation Act 2001 to issue a “letter of instruction” to the IAA “to authorise these additional slots”. The airline drafted the letter of instruction and submitted it to the department earlier this month.

“It is unacceptable that the Irish Minister for Transport is not exercising his legal power to authorise these additional flights,” Mr O’Leary said. “If he does not act (as he has not done for four years now), then we call on the Minister for Green Tourism, Catherine Martin, to act.”

James Lawless, Minister of State for Transport, met Mr O’Leary at Ryanair’s headquarters in Dublin a fortnight ago to ask for suggestions on how to avoid a potential winter crisis at Dublin Airport. The Fianna Fáil Minister of State told airlines they should diversify their Irish routes beyond Dublin Airport to regional hubs such as Shannon and Cork to resolve the crisis.

At Ryanair’s annual general meeting, Mr O’Leary said the minister’s proposal was not viable. “Christmas passengers who are coming from London and the UK don’t want to go to Cork and Shannon to get home to Dublin or places around Dublin,” Mr O’Leary said. “They want to go to Dublin.”

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