Ryanair cuts Dublin capacity

Ryanair has cut nearly 10% of its planned summer 2026 flights from Dublin Airport after the airport’s 32 million passenger cap stayed in place. (irishtimes.com) The airline told The Irish Times it removed close to one in 10 planned departures from its Dublin summer schedule this week. The cuts reduce the number of seats Ryanair had expected to sell from Ireland’s biggest airport during the peak travel season. (irishtimes.com) Ryanair said the trigger was Dublin Airport’s unchanged annual traffic limit of 32 million passengers. That cap is a planning condition tied to earlier airport approvals, not a temporary airline scheduling rule. (irishtimes.com; gov.ie) The limit dates to planning decisions for Terminal 2 in 2007 and Terminal 1 works in 2008. Department of Transport officials told an Oireachtas committee the condition was originally linked to road and surface-access constraints around the airport. (data.oireachtas.ie) The cap has become a live political issue because passenger demand kept rising into 2026. Dublin Airport handled 2.48 million passengers in January, up 14% from a year earlier, and more than 2.3 million in February, up 9.7%. (daa.ie; daa.ie) The Irish government moved in February to change the law. Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien won Cabinet approval on February 10 for the Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026, which would let him amend or revoke the 32 million cap. (gov.ie; gov.ie) That legislation has not yet removed the restriction, and airlines have been warning for months that schedules would tighten if the cap survived into the summer. Ryanair told a Dáil committee on March 25 that the government had still not acted 16 months after promising to scrap it. (corporate.ryanair.com; gov.ie) Other carriers and airport interests have been making the same argument. The Irish Times reported in March that Aer Lingus, U.S. airlines and Dublin Airport operator DAA warned politicians that the cap was pushing up fares and threatening routes, including transatlantic services. (irishtimes.com; irishtimes.com) For travelers, the immediate effect is simpler than the planning fight: fewer Ryanair flights from Dublin means fewer available seats and fewer scheduling options on some summer dates. The larger dispute over whether Ireland lifts the cap now moves back to the government and the Oireachtas. (irishtimes.com; data.oireachtas.ie)