Mr. Kenny Jacobs:

Last year the figure was 31.9 million people, net of transits and only single-counting transfers. Everybody needs to remember that the cap is about road congestion, cars coming to and from the airport. In theory, if every single passenger came on a bus, no cars came to Dublin Airport and the car parks were all empty, the cap would still exist. For me, the cap is a blunt and now out-of-date instrument, because 34% of passengers are coming on the bus and the cap is based on cars coming to and from the airport. That is why we think it is right and sensible to exclude transit passengers, that is, a plane landing, nobody getting off the plane and nobody getting into a car. We are single-counting every single transfer. If someone flies from Donegal to Dublin and on to JFK, we are saying that is one passenger.

Those passengers do not come to Dublin Airport by car, so we think it is a sensible calculation. Many of the airlines argue that all transfer passengers should be excluded. Most importantly, we do not control passenger numbers. If I told airlines not to apply for slots, I would be breaking the law. Airlines apply for slots and that is what drives passenger numbers.