New legislative proposal sets out a clear process to remove Dublin Airport’s passenger cap

A new law paving the way for the scrapping of Dublin Airport’s 32-million-a-year passenger cap could be enacted before the Irish Dáil’s summer recess, after the proposed legislation was approved by Cabinet. The much-anticipated full text of the Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026 was brought to Cabinet on Tuesday, 16 June.

The Bill also provides that a passenger cap cannot be imposed on Dublin Airport by a planning authority in the future. Dublin Airport had already exceeded the outdated limit, handling around 36 million passengers in 2025, with airlines and the airport’s operator urging the Government to end the cap before an EU court ruling forced regulators to enforce it, severely cutting flights at the country’s busiest hub.

It is expected to become law before TDs and Senators break for the summer in mid-July, ending a controversy that has run for several years and finally giving the airport room to grow into the role it has effectively already been playing.

Find more information in daa official statement here.