Aer Lingus Regional franchise operator Emerald Airlines has said it hopes to record its first profitable year in three years of operations in 2024. However, the carrier is warning that the ongoing capacity cap at Dublin Airport (DUB) will hinder its growth going forward and that the airline is considering withdrawing one of its aircraft from the Irish airport for the summer of 2025.
According to Conor McCarthy, founder and Executive Chairman of Emerald Airlines, speaking to the Irish Independent, the company has enjoyed a strong summer 2024 season, and that annual turnover for this year is forecast to reach approximately €200 million ($222 million).
The carrier expects to perform 40,000 flights during the year and carry 2.5 million passengers on its routes between the island of Ireland and its UK and European destinations. The company hopes to make a profit in the “single million Euros” as a result for the year, states McCarthy.
However, the future looks uncertain for the carrier which has much of its operations based at Dublin Airport where it acts as a feeder from UK and Irish regional airports for Aer Lingus’ European and long-haul operations from the airport.
Dublin Airport is currently restricted to handling just 32 million passengers per year following an agreement that was reached in 2007 which allowed the construction of Terminal 2 at the airport to go ahead. However, given the amount that air traffic has grown from Ireland, particularly since the pandemic, this cap is now being heavily criticized by various carriers at the airport including Aer Lingus and Ryanair, which argue that it is stifling growth and economic prosperity across Ireland.
Yet, it is not just airlines that want the cap raised. Even the airport operator, daa, has been lobbying the Irish government concerning a possible relaxation of the rules. However, so far, the government’s stance has remained that it is unwilling to interfere with historic planning applications and approvals.
As a result, the Irish Aviation Authority has said it will keep the cap in place for at least the upcoming winter 2024/25 season and will even limit the movements at the airport during summer 2025 to just 25.2 million passengers. In response, Ryanair has announced it will operate some of its planned scheduled and charter services from Belfast International Airport (BFS) across the border in Northern Ireland as a result.
McCarthy is also vociferous in his dismay at his perceived intransigence of the Irish authority to revisit the issue of the cap. He states that the imposition of the passenger limit means that young and small carriers such as Emerald Airlines are unable to reach critical mass at Dublin Airport and have to consider their options in terms of possibly operating from other alternative airports instead.
With 18 aircraft (all 72-seat ATR72s) in its current fleet, the carrier had been hoping to increase its presence at Dublin Airport in the summer of 2025, where it sees strong revenue-earning potential. However, with the cap remaining in place, the company is looking to re-deploy one of its Dublin-based aircraft elsewhere. This means that, having hoped to increase the based aircraft at the airport by two units for the summer of 2025, the airline will in effect be dropping its planned number of aircraft at Dublin by three airplanes.
Emerald Airlines argues that any growth permitted at Dublin Airport in the future would not only benefit carriers such as Emerald Airlines but also the airport, local employment, and the wider region in terms of both business and tourism. McCarthy says the Dublin capacity limit is effectively acting as an “own goal” for the country, which is driving visitors and airlines away.