It says such a move would place pilot and cabin crew jobs at risk.
The cap at Dublin Airport limits passenger numbers to 32 million a year. However, as it is effectively paused at the moment due to legal action, the gateway handled 36.4 million passengers in 2025, the highest total ever.
The US pilots’ association (ALPA) has urged the US Department of Transportation to press Ireland and the EU to remove the cap. ALPA was, in turn, responding to a complaint from the US lobby group Airlines for America (A4A). The group, which represents major airlines such as Delta and United, has urged the US government to suspend or curtail flights from Ireland unless the cap is lifted in the coming weeks.
January 23 was the deadline for submitting responses to the complaint from A4A to the US Department of Transportation.
The cap at Dublin Airport was introduced under a planning condition attached in 2007 to the construction of Terminal 2. Matters related to it have been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union. An opinion is due to be filed by one of the court’s advocate generals next month. A final decision will follow some months later.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) had previously moved to limit the number of available take-off and landing slots at Dublin Airport in order to ensure the cap was obeyed. But that decision was challenged by airlines and remains stayed by the High Court pending the Court of Justice decision.
A United Airlines flight at Dublin Airport. Photo: Getty
“ALPA supports the efforts of the Department and US airlines to prevent Ireland from cutting US carriers’ historic slots at Dublin as the Irish aviation authorities had proposed,” ALPA in its submission.
“Such actions would ultimately lower the capacity of Dublin Airport from a current exceedance of passengers to 25.2 million commercial airline passengers per year, placing pilot and cabin crew jobs at risk.
“Had an Irish court not stayed it, this action would violate the International Air Transportation Fair Competitive Practices Act… as well as violate the US-EU Air Transport Agreement,” ALPA also claimed in its submission.
The pilots’ group noted that during the summer of 2025, US carriers operated 15 to 16 scheduled round-trips to Dublin per day.
“Over the course of the season, 60 to 70 flight crews operated those flights, including 120 to 140 pilots,” it said. “The work of those crews would be at risk if the slot cuts become permanent.
“While slot cuts can be justified under the ATA [Air Transport Agreement] for operational or technical reasons, these proposed cuts appear to be based on an irrelevant factor, namely, a supposed limit on Dublin’s terminal buildings to handle commercial airline passengers to achieve a 32 million passenger per year limit for the entire airport, including general aviation and other users,” it added.
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