Ryanair has claimed that air fares to and from Dublin Airport are “going to go through the roof” over the coming winter season.
The airline said it has not been allocated enough seats to meet its demand due to a cap on the number of passengers allowed to use Dublin Airport.
The airport is currently limited to having 32 million passengers a year use its facility under historical planning permissions.
Ryanair called on the Irish Transport Minister Eamonn Ryan to intervene and scrap the cap.
Last year, in excess of 31.9 million passengers used the two terminals, which essentially means capacity has maxed out.
Earlier this month, the Irish Aviation Authority announced a 14.4m airline seat capacity between late October 2024 and the end of March 2025.
Ryanair said it was allocated one million seats less for the forthcoming winter than it requires to meet demand during peak periods such as mid-term break and Christmas holidays.
In a statement, the company’s CEO Eddie Wilson said that the “enforced reduction of seats will only lead to customers having to pay higher air fares and may well result in the return of pricing that was last seen in the 1980’s”.
Irish national broadcaster RTÉ reported that Mr Wilson said the airline would have normally added 300,000 additional seats between Dublin and London over the Christmas period, but this year will not be able to.
He predicted that this could lead to one-way fares on that route around the festive period reaching up to €500 (£425).
Ryanair previously announced that it was moving three aircraft, 16 new routes and around 200 jobs away from Dublin Airport to Southern Italy for the summer period because of the cap.
The airport operator, daa, has applied for planning permission for the cap to be increased to 40m passengers.
