Dublin Airport has received an ultimatum from the Fingal County Council to reduce night flying in the coming six weeks. A recent report by the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority found that while the overall number of aircraft movements at the airport was lower in 2022 compared to 2019, night-time movements increased by 7%. Meanwhile the airport is pushing back against the imposed restrictions.
The Fingal County Council is planning to cap night flights at 65 between 23:00 and 07:00, but Dublin Airport argues that this would be restrict the progress of Irish economy and connectivity.
However, the report states that: “The number of people categorized as highly sleep disturbed (HSD) decreased during 2022 by 25,707 (55%). A reduction was achieved across all assessed 5dB noise bands except for the 55- 59db Lnight band.”
DAA, the authority governing Dublin Airport has staunchly opposed this move reduce night flights in the name of noise abatement. In a statement released on August 2, DAA said: “Fingal County Council knew such a cap was not fit-for-purpose. For the airport, the busiest times of the day are 23:00 to midnight and between 06:00 and 07:00 in the morning.”
DAA insists on having six months to implement or preferably suspend the requirement. Kenny Jacobs, chief executive, daa said: “We now face an unnecessary situation whereby Fingal County Council requires its interpretation of these onerous operating conditions to be applied at Dublin Airport – and within just six weeks. Unreasonably, this would mean the number of flights operating on Dublin Airport’s two runways between 11pm and 7am would be lower than before North Runway opened and when it only had one runway.”
Fingal County Council’s decision would be bad for the Irish consumer, bad for the Irish economy, bad for Ireland’s connectivity with the world and bad for the effective operation of Dublin Airport. It is a sad indictment of the Irish planning system that this issue has been ongoing for the past seven years, since before construction work on North Runway began,” Jacobs added.
Fingal County Council released a statement saying that the DAA breached the rule and now has six weeks to reduce the number of aircraft movements to 65 or less each night within six weeks.
Reacting strongly to the news Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has warned of mass cancellations at Dublin airport. “The flights leaving at 6am could not be moved to 7am because there were no available slots. If you really want to reduce between midnight & 6am cancel the cargo flights, they’re the ones that are making most of the noise,” O’Leary said while speaking to RTÉ Radio’s News at One. “If you really want to reduce between midnight & 6am cancel the cargo flights, they’re the ones that are making most of the noise,” he added.
When Dublin Airport was granted approval for the new runway in 2007, Condition 5 was put in place to cap the number of flights between 11pm and 7am could not exceed 65, to control the frequency of night flights at the airport.
The council issued the notice after carrying out the investigation. It requires DAA to reduce the number of flights within six weeks, as well as to pay the council €350 for costs and expenses incurred by it in relation to the investigation.
The notice states that if DAA does not comply within six weeks, or an extended period of six months if it is granted by the council, then it may enter on the land and take such steps, including the removal, demolition or alteration of any structure, and may recover any expenses reasonably incurred by them in that behalf.