Dublin Airport on Heathrow’s coat-tails as it seeks rise in passenger charges

The company behind Dublin Airport has piggybacked on its larger neighbour – London Heathrow – issuing yet another plea for increased passenger charges.

After releasing results on Thursday, the outgoing chief executive of Heathrow airport, John Holland-Kaye, said the facility was seeking higher passenger charges to meet rising costs and allow for expansion of services as airlines continue to ramp up.

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority has set an interim charge of £31.57 (€35.74) per passenger through the rest of 2023, and Holland-Kaye complained it had “got the pricing wrong” and expressed hope it would be revisited.

The charge at Dublin Airport has been set at €8.68 by the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR). Passengers who have used the facility over the past year will be familiar with its issues around cleanliness and overflowing bins of late.

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Speaking on Friday, DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs was quick to say he wants to give passengers a better service but needs a “modest increase” in charges to deliver that. Industry experts have suggested the company wants to charge about €13 or €14 per passenger.

“Dublin Airport already has the lowest charges of 18 similar-sized airports across Europe,” said Jacobs. “It is interesting to see how the other half lives – with Heathrow’s charges at €36, 4½ times higher than the ultra-low cost charge of €8.68 at Dublin Airport. All we want is a Dublin Airport that is resilient and can grow and give passengers a better service, and to do that we need a modest increase to our extremely low regulated price.”

This is not the first time the DAA has made the plea. In correspondence with the aviation regulator earlier this year over plans for passenger charges, it lamented that it is expected to solve every problem at the airport no matter whose fault they actually are. It said it would not be able to afford the extra staff to keep passengers happy when it comes to security queues, cleanliness and unforeseen problems with airlines.

Considering CAR has already ruled on this, it seems the DAA’s cries are likely to fall on deaf ears.