{"id":53258,"date":"2025-09-09T16:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53258\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T16:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:11:07","slug":"ryanair-applies-for-judicial-review-of-night-flights-ruling-at-dublin-airport-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53258\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair applies for judicial review of night flights ruling at Dublin Airport \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryanair<\/a> has applied for a judicial review in the High Court to challenge a limit on night flights at Dublin Airport to 35,672 a year.<\/p>\n

The airline said the ruling by planning appeals board, An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la, amounted to \u201can illegal second movements cap\u201d at the facility.<\/p>\n

An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la said in July it would extend the hours the airport could from its new north runway to between 6am and midnight. Previously, there had been a ban on landing or taking off from that runway between 11pm and 7am.<\/p>\n

The decision means the average number of flights allowed through the airport\u2019s two runways between 11pm and 7am increased to 98 from 65 a day. However, this was made subject to an annual limit on night flights of 35,672. <\/p>\n

The older south runway remains open through the night, while the north runway will close between midnight and 6am.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ryanair adds 600,000 seats to Irish winter scheduleOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Planners also proposed that night-time noise be managed through a quota system, something sought by airlines and the airport operator, DAA.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday, Ryanair said the restrictions imposed in July \u201cartificially limit night movements\u201d, and block early morning pre-7am arrivals, which it described as \u201cvital for transatlantic landings\u201d between 5am and 7am. <\/p>\n

It also said the ruling would delay \u201cmuch-needed investment and growth\u201d at Ireland\u2019s main gateway airport, as well as \u201cstrangle transatlantic traffic, damage growth and short-haul connectivity\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la had failed to explain why it overruled the specialist airport noise regulator, Anca, which had rejected a movement cap in favour of a night-time noise quota system.<\/p>\n

This, it argued, would have allowed Dublin Airport to grow through use of quieter, more modern aircraft such as Ryanair\u2019s new B737 aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la\u2019s blunt and unlawful movement cap reduces consumer choice, damages connectivity and punishes investment, while doing nothing to encourage airlines who operate newer, quieter aircraft,\u201d the airline said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, Transport Minister Darragh O\u2019Brien has continued to sit on his hands doing nothing to scrap the 2007 [passenger] cap, despite the Programme for Government pledging to abolish it \u2018as soon as possible\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow there is a second passenger cap at Dublin Airport damaging the growth of Irish tourism and jobs, while this do-nothing Government sits around pondering options as its preferred alternative to action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Transport, DAA, and Fingal County Council have been approached for comment. <\/p>\n

Ryanair chief executive Michael O\u2019Leary said: \u201cThese two artificial caps at Dublin Airport are unlawful. They are in breach the EU\u2019s fundamental right to freedom of movement and they are also in breach of the EU-US \u201copen skies\u201d flight agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny competent Government would by now have already scrapped the original 32 million traffic cap at Dublin Airport, given that the January 2025 Government programme promised to do so as soon as possible. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot alone has transport minister Darragh O\u2019Brien done nothing for nine months, but now the incompetent bureaucrats at An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la have imposed a second illegal cap which limits early morning arrivals between 5am to 7am, when most transatlantic flights arrive in Dublin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary said the night flying restrictions would \u201cdamage existing transatlantic flights and shut off long haul traffic growth in Dublin, at a time when visitor numbers to Ireland are declining\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added the airline \u201chas no choice\u201d but to seek a judicial review of \u201cthis latest unlawful planning stupidity\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryanair has applied for a judicial review in the High Court to challenge a limit on night flights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[7928,79,38997,18,19,17,1843,623],"class_list":{"0":"post-53258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-an-coimisiun-pleanala","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-daa","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-michael-oleary","15":"tag-ryanair"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}