Dublin Airport's passenger cap holding city back, business group warns

Dublin Airport’s passenger cap will cause significant challenges for the city and country if it is not lifted this year, a leading Irish business group has warned.

​Richard Guiney, CEO of the business group Dublin Town, has said that the airport's passenger cap has impaired the city's growth due to a lack of spending by visitors.

​The US Department of Transportation was to take action against Ireland over complaints from their airlines objecting to the cap, and today (May 6) marks their deadline.

​Richard said: “Up to one fifth of the spend in Dublin city comes through visitors to the capital,” Mr Guiney said.

“This money is keeping many city centre businesses afloat, but the cap has impaired potential.

“Unlike some European capitals, Dublin is not over-visited, and there remains capacity to increase visitor numbers.”

​He argues that the cap must be removed permanently if Dublin City is ever to be vibrant and successful and be viewed as a significant European city.

​“Dublin must embrace a position as a leading European city. To do that, it must warmly welcome visitors and investors and be truly internationalist and expansive in its collective view.

“The cap of 32 million on the number of passengers that can use Dublin Airport each year has been a barrier to this and must be removed as soon as possible.

“Otherwise the city will pay a very high price.”