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The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has published its final decision on Dublin Airport’s Winter 2026 capacity which will be used in the airport slot allocation process. The final decision remains consistent with the proposals of the draft decision. In making its decision, the IAA has taken account of the responses received to the draft decision consultation, which closed on 22 April. The Winter 2026 scheduling season runs from 25 October 2026 to 27 March 2027 inclusive.

In light of the Order of the High Court that, pending the determination of associated legal proceedings, the IAA is not to take account of certain planning conditions which limit the ‘combined capacity’ of Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 to 32 million annual passengers, no seat cap coordination parameter is included for Winter 2026.

The IAA is responsible for the implementation of the EU Airport Slot Regulation¹. The Slot Regulation aims to ensure that, where capacity is scarce, the maximum available capacity is identified and distributed in a fair and transparent way by means of  the allocation of take-off and landing slots by an independent coordinator, according to rules set out in the Slot Regulation, and based on the capacity identified for the airport concerned. Capacity is declared to the detailed level of up to 10-minute intervals.

The coordination parameters will support increased competition by allowing for up to 32 additional daily slots to be allocated by the independent slot coordinator, but without degrading the current service quality.

The final decision is available on the IAA slot allocation webpage.

¹EU COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 95/93, on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 793/2004.