Dublin Airport
Dublin Airport is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA. The airport is located in Collinstown, north of Dublin, and south of Swords.
In 2025, over 36.4 million passengers passed through the airport, making it the airport's busiest year on record. It is the 12th busiest airport in Europe, and is the busiest of Ireland's airports by total passenger traffic; it also has the largest traffic levels on the island of Ireland, followed by Belfast International Airport.
The airport has an extensive short and medium haul network, served by an array of carriers, as well as a significant long-haul network focused on North America and the Middle East. It serves as the primary hub for Ireland's flag carrier, Aer Lingus, and the regional airline Emerald Airlines, which operates under the Aer Lingus Regional brand. Additionally, it is the home base and second-largest operational base for Europe's largest airline, Ryanair.
United States border preclearance services are available at the airport for U.S.-bound passengers. Shannon Airport, also in Ireland, is the only other airport in Europe to offer this facility.
History
Collinstown Aerodrome
The airport began as a wartime aerodrome located in the townland of Collinstown, Fingal. In 1917, during World War I, Collinstown was selected as the base for the British Royal Flying Corps. By April 1918, when the Flying Corps was renamed the Royal Air Force, Collinstown Aerodrome was more than 20% complete. Construction was completed in 1919 when the Irish War of Independence broke out. On 20 March 1919, a group of 30 Irish Volunteers, including five employed by the RAF, stole 75 rifles and 5,000 rounds of ammunition from the base. As Collinstown Camp, the site was used for internment of Irish republicans. At the end of 1922, the land and buildings at Collinstown were transferred to the Irish Free State. The airfield fell into disrepair and grass grew on the former runways.The beginnings in the 1930s and 1940s
In 1936, the Executive Council of the Irish Free State established a new civil airline — Aer Lingus — which began operating from Casement Aerodrome, at Baldonnel. A decision was made that a civil airport should replace Baldonnel as Dublin's airport. The Collinstown site was chosen and extended into the neighbouring townlands of Rock and Corballis.Work on the new airport began in 1937. By the end of 1939, a grass airfield surface, internal roads, car parks and electrical power and lighting were set up. The inaugural flight from Dublin took place on 19 January 1940 to Liverpool. In August 1938, work began on a new airport terminal building. The terminal building was designed by architect Desmond FitzGerald, brother of politician Garret FitzGerald. FitzGerald, who had designed an airport terminal as part of his college studies, led a team of architects that also included Kevin Barry, Niall Montgomery, Daithí Hanley, Charles Aliaga Kelly, Dermot O'Toole and Harry Robson. The terminal building opened in early 1941, with its design heavily influenced by the tiered structure of the luxury ocean liners of the time. The terminal was awarded the RIAI Triennial Gold Medal in 1942 and is today a listed building.
Due to World War II, which was known as The Emergency in Ireland, services were severely restricted at Dublin Airport until late 1945. The only international scheduled routes operated during this time were by Aer Lingus to Liverpool. The end of the war meant the beginning of a major expansion in services at the airport. Aer Lingus resumed its London service to Croydon in November 1945. In 1947, KLM started the first European flights to Dublin with a service to Amsterdam. Three new concrete runways were completed in 1948, and in 1950 - after ten years in operation - the airport had welcomed a total of 920,000 passengers.
Expanding in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s
Throughout the 1950s Dublin Airport expanded with virtually uninterrupted traffic growth. Runway extensions and terminal enhancements were carried out to deal with the influx of traffic and passengers. New airlines began serving the airport also. These included British European Airways, Sabena, and BKS.In 1958, a new transatlantic service was started by Aer Lingus via Shannon Airport. By the mid-1950s, it was clear that the original terminal building was too small to cope with growing passenger numbers. A new North Terminal was opened in June 1959. Originally, the plan was that North Terminal would handle all US and European flights, but instead, it became the arrivals terminal for all Dublin Airport passengers, while the original passenger terminal was used for departures.
During the 1960s, the number of scheduled carriers continued to grow. By the close of the 1960s, a sizeable number of Boeing 737s, BAC One-Elevens, Boeing 707s and Hawker Siddeley Tridents were using the airport regularly. In the late 1960s new departure gate piers were added close to the old terminal to cope with larger aircraft. These piers would subsequently be connected to Terminal 1. During 1969, the airport handled 1,737,151 passengers.
In his 1969 book Irish Pubs of Character, Roy Bulson describes the restaurant in Dublin airport as "one of the best airport restaurants in Europe" which served a table d'hôte lunch from noon until 3 pm, and hosted regular Saturday night dinner dances from October until April which had become very popular by that point. The airport bar, The Shamrock Lounge, operated from 7 am until 10:30 pm and included a cocktail bar from which the patron could watch the arrival and departure of aircraft. A separate premises named the Fáilte Bar existed in the arrivals building.
The advent of wide-body aircraft posed opportunities and challenges for aviation. In 1971, Aer Lingus took delivery of two new Boeing 747 aircraft; the first one arrived in March and, shortly afterwards, performed a flyover above O'Connell Street in Dublin on Saint Patrick's Day; a third Boeing 747 was delivered later that decade. To cope with this, a new £10 million passenger terminal capable of handling six million passengers per year, which became known as Terminal 1, was opened in June 1972. The growth which was anticipated at Dublin's airport during the 1970s did not materialise immediately.
On 30 November 1975, one person was killed and eight others were injured when the airport was bombed by the Ulster Defence Association.
File:Ryanair, Dublin, July 1993.jpg|thumb|right|Two of the airport's largest operators side-by-side, a Ryanair BAC 1-11 in its oldest livery, and an Aer Lingus Boeing 737 in 1993
File:Aer Lingus, Dublin, July 1992.jpg|thumbnail|An Aer Lingus Boeing 737-200 and a Ryanair BAC 1-11 in July 1992
Continuing in the 1980s and 1990s
In 1983 Aer Lingus opened its 'Aer Lingus Commuter' division which took delivery of Shorts, Saab AB and Fokker turboprop aircraft to open regular daily domestic services to and from Ireland's smaller regional airports for the first time, as well as to serve existing routes to smaller regional airports in the United Kingdom. At various stages of its operations, flights were operated to several Irish regional airports to feed passengers into Aer Lingus's international network. These domestic destinations included Cork Airport, Shannon Airport, Kerry Airport, Galway Airport, Ireland West Airport, Waterford Airport, Sligo Airport and City of Derry Airport. Aer Lingus Commuter has since been re-absorbed into the main company. The domestic routes, with the exception of Dublin-Shannon, were taken over by Aer Arann. Most of these routes have since been discontinued as the development of the motorway network in Ireland has resulted in significant reductions in travelling time by road. Aer Lingus has continued with the remaining Dublin–UK flights.During the 1980s, major competition, especially on the Dublin–London routes, resulted in passenger numbers swelling to 5.1 million in 1989. In the same year a new runway and a state-of-the-art air traffic control centre were opened. Dublin Airport continued to expand rapidly in the 1990s, with 5.5 million passengers in 1991. Pier A, which had been the first extension to the old terminal building, was significantly extended. A new Pier C, complete with air bridges, was built and as soon as this was completed, work commenced to extend it to double its capacity. The ground floor of the original terminal building was returned to passenger service after many years to provide additional departure gates. Pier D, completed in October 2007, is a dedicated low-fares boarding area and provides 14 quick turn-around stands and departure gates; these are not served by air bridges.
The Bilateral Air Transport Agreement
In 1993, a major milestone for the airport was the signing of a new United States – Ireland bilateral agreement which allowed airlines to operate some direct transatlantic services for the first time to/from Dublin Airport instead of touching down en route at Shannon Airport on the west coast of Ireland. Airlines still had to provide an equal number of flights either to or through Shannon as to Dublin. A gradual further watering down of Shannon's so-called 'stopover' status came into effect in November 2006 when more direct flights to Dublin were allowed. The stopover requirement disappeared completely in 2008. At that time, airlines were allowed to fly direct to the US from Dublin without having to match these with any to/from Shannon. It was expected that this would result in a huge increase in services between Dublin and the US and Aer Lingus identified 16 destinations that it would like to serve directly from Dublin.Recent history
With the success of Ireland's 'Celtic Tiger' economy, Dublin Airport saw growth in the 1990s and 2000s. This demand was driven by an increased demand for business travel to and from the country, together with an increase in inward tourism and a surge in demand for foreign holidays and city breaks from the Irish.The demand from Ireland's migrant workers, principally those from Eastern Europe, has resulted in a large number of new routes opening to destinations in the European Union accession states. Ireland was one of only three European Union countries to open its borders freely to workers from the ten accession states that joined the European Union in 2004.
In 2007 the then shortest runway, 11/29, was closed and converted to an aircraft storage area. This runway would subsequently be demolished for the construction of a second long runway parallel to 10/28.
The airport saw significant declines in traffic in 2009 and 2010, although since 2011 the airport has seen an increase in traffic. During 2012, this increase continued with passenger numbers growing by 1.9%. During 2013, passenger numbers at Dublin Airport were above the 20 million mark for the first time since 2009 with a 5.6% increase year on year. During 2014, this positive trend continued with an 8% increase over 2013. As of early December 2015, passenger figures have increased by 16% compared to 2014, and the previous record of 23.46 million passengers set in 2008 has already been passed. 2019 was the airport's busiest year, recording 32.9 million passengers - an increase in passenger numbers by 4% during the year. Long-haul passenger numbers increased by 4% to almost 5.2 million, while Short-haul traffic increased by 5% to 27.7 million.
In August 2019, Dublin Airport was chosen for the Special Achievement in Geographic Information Systems award for its use of mapping software from ESRI Ireland.
Due to the pandemic and its impact, the airport lost 115 routes, as in January 2021, it scheduled flights to just 85 cities, down from 200 before the crisis began.
On several separate days in early 2023, reports of drone sightings at the airport led to the delay and cancellation of several flights. On 4 February 2023, for example, flights were disrupted for 45 minutes after two confirmed drone sightings. And, on 6 February 2023, flights were impacted for approximately 40 minutes. As it is illegal to operate a drone within 5 kilometers of an Irish airfield, DAA called for the Garda Síochana to introduce a counter-drone system and for the government to increase sentences for offenders. Ryanair also called for the government to take immediate action. One man was arrested later in February 2023, and was charged under the Air Navigation and Transport Act. As of April 2024, two men had been charged and due to be tried, separately, for allegedly flying drones near the airport.
Beginning in 2018, airport passenger numbers began approaching their legal limit of 32 million per year. In 2023, the DAA applied to extend this cap to 40 million while also advocating for its complete removal in the long term.
In 2025, after the success of the men's national team, Dublin Airport's social media accounts changed their name to "Troy Parrot International Airport" to commemorate the 5 goals that sent them to the FIFA World Cup playoffs. While this was only a marketing stunt, it gained widespread traction, with some pilots even reporting that they were landing at "Troy Parrott International".