Ryanair says Leinster Rugby will fly from Belfast rather than Dublin Airport due to a dispute over passenger caps.

.                                                          Photograph: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

The Leinster Rugby team will now travel to their European matches by Ryanair, who announced the change on Monday. This comes in the midst of a continuing dispute over Dublin Airport's yearly passenger cap.

The airline said that the former leader of the Green Party had "failed" to act, forcing the team to make travel arrangements from Belfast to away games in the European Rugby Champions Cup and the United Rugby Championship this season. The airline had recently written to Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, urging him to direct the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to issue additional slots to avoid a winter crisis.
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The fixtures that are impacted include Leinster's January match against La Rochelle and their away games in Bristol and Cardiff. Rugby Leinster has been asked to comment.

Dublin Airport operator DAA anticipates exceeding the annual 32 million passenger-a-year maximum limit this year by almost one million passengers due to record levels of travellers passing through the airport.

This would violate the 2007 An Bord Pleanála ruling, which limited airport passenger traffic in exchange for granting planning authority for the new north runway. 

DAA has requested that the maximum be increased to 40 million with the Fingal County Council, although a final decision is not anticipated for some time.

In light of this, the IAA originally implemented a 14.4 million seat capacity limit in May for the winter 2024 season, which runs from October 2024 to March 2025. This implies that there won't be any more winter slots available this year. Winter slots are normally given to airlines during the time leading up to Christmas because of the high demand for travel during that season.

However, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary stated in a statement on Monday that the minister is authorised by the Aviation Act of 2001 to send the IAA a "letter of direction" asking them "to allow these extra slots." The airline composed the letter of instruction and turned it into the department at the beginning of this month.

"It is intolerable that the Transport Minister of Ireland is refusing to use his official authority to authorise these additional flights," Mr O'Leary stated. "We then call on Green Tourism Minister Catherine Martin to take action if he won't act, as he hasn't done so for the past four years."

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A fortnight ago, Mr O'Leary was visited by James Lawless, Minister of State in the Department of Transport, who was seeking advice from him on how to prevent a possible winter crisis at Dublin Airport. They met at Ryanair's Dublin headquarters. As a remedy to the situation, the Fianna Fáil TD has advised airlines to diversify their Irish routes away from Dublin Airport and towards regional hubs like Shannon and Cork Airport.

During Ryanair's annual general meeting, Mr O'Leary stated that the minister's proposal is not workable. According to Mr O'Leary, "The Christmas extras arriving from London and the UK don't want to go to Cork and Shannon to go home to Dublin or to places around Dublin." "They'd like to visit Dublin."

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