In December alone there were 2.7 million passengers, up 13pc on the same month in 2024, when the cap was being applied.
DAA says the airport had more than 100,000 passengers on 215 separate days last year, while it handled a total of 255,000 flights, up 5pc year-on-year.
Today’s News in 90 – Friday January 16
Gary McLean, the airport’s managing director, said operations ran smoothly throughout the year, with 97pc of passengers passing through security in less than 20 minutes. This was helped by the introduction of new scanning technology in both terminals.
“Go back 10 years and Dublin Airport had never handled more than 100,000 passengers in a single day,” he said. “Last year, three out of five days saw 100,000 plus passengers moving through our terminals. We also recorded our busiest ever day on Sunday, July 29 when 129,000 passengers went through smoothly.”
The DAA said transatlantic activity was also strong, with numbers processed by the US pre-clearance facility in Terminal 2 exceeding two million in a 12-month period for the first time.
Dublin Airport is subject to a limit of handling 32 million passengers a year under a planning condition attached in 2007 to the construction of Terminal 2. This is currently suspended, as the issue has been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
An opinion in that case is due to be filed by one of the court’s advocate generals next month. A final decision will come some months later.
The Government is promising to introduce legislation to remove the cap, but it is thought unlikely the Oireachtas will pass this before the summer.
“Dublin Airport has room to accommodate higher numbers of passengers in the years ahead, but it is essential that we soon start building new gates, stands and other infrastructure to set us up to meet the demand that’s coming, and removing the passenger cap is key to that happening,” Mr McClean said.
“We are encouraged by the progress being made by the Minister for Transport in introducing new legislation, which will see the cap removed, and its inclusion this week in the Spring Legislative Programme.”
The top destinations from Dublin last year were London Heathrow, Amsterdam; Manchester, London Stansted and London Gatwick.
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