Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 26 July 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Situation at Dublin Airport: Discussion

Mr. Vincent Harrison:

We were guided by several sources. Taking the guidance issued by Airports International Europe, ACI Europe, the group representing airports around Europe, it was expecting passenger numbers to return to approximately 70% of 2019 levels in 2022. It is always important to understand the currency we are dealing in. The aircraft movements may be there, but then there is also a question, especially when it comes to security screening, concerning how full those aircraft are going to be. Potentially, aircraft can operate viably with relatively lower load factors, although there will always be a cut-off point regarding that viability. In general, therefore, the industry would have expected, and when we started to see statistics in Dublin outperforming those averages, that was on the high side. What has definitely taken us by surprise, and I will not speak for others, has been the sustained level of demand that has been pretty much filling all the seats put on. Therefore, where capacity is back to 90%, the load factors are back to 90% and more in the peak summer season as well.

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