IAA commences Dublin Airport charges determination process

The next airport charges determination will be made by the IAA in 2026, to take effect from 2027 for 4+ years.

The first public consultation period commences on 29th July, and will be open for two months.

Dublin Airport’s net revenue has outperformed the projections used to determine the charges for 2023 and 2024, leading to better financial performance than projected.

It has also performed strongly on service quality over the last two years, largely meeting targets in security queue times and passenger satisfaction.

Capital expenditure is significantly below the planned timeline set in 2022, due to the major capacity and passenger experience-enhancing projects remaining in the planning permission process.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today commences the process for making the next Dublin Airport charges determination, with the publication of the first substantive consultation papers.

In 2026, the IAA will make a new determination on the maximum level of airport charges at Dublin Airport (the ‘2026 Determination’). It will set the maximum levels of airport charges for a period of at least 4 years, beginning on the 1 January 2027. This will be the first airport charges determination made by the IAA, following the regulatory restructuring in 2023 where the functions previously assigned to the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) were merged into the IAA.

The key objective of the determination will be to promote and protect the interests of current and future airport users. It will seek to strike a balance between generating sufficient revenues for daa to operate and develop the airport, and ensuring charges are not higher than necessary, which would lead to reduced value and choice for passengers, and reduced connectivity.

Today’s consultation papers provide an overview of Dublin Airport’s recent performance compared to the forecasts and allowances set in 2022, and seek views from interested parties on key issues and the proposed methodologies. Alongside this paper, the IAA publishes a benchmarking study carried out by the IAA, in which it seeks to put the level of airport charges at Dublin Airport, and recent financial performance, into context across a broad sample of other European airports.

Overall, in 2023 and 2024, Dublin Airport has outperformed the financial forecasts from 2022 which underlie the current determination, meaning that its financial performance has been better than expected. This outperformance has been driven primarily by increased commercial revenues (in particular, higher retail and carparking yields per passenger), and by higher passenger volumes. Operating expenditure has been closely in line with the determination forecast from 2022. Dublin Airport has also performed strongly on service quality over the last two years, largely meeting targets in areas such as asset availability and security queue times, and meeting bonus targets in relation to some passenger satisfaction results.

Capital expenditure has been well below the forecast/allowances made in 2022. The major capacity and passenger experience-enhancing projects remain in the planning permission process as part of Dublin Airport’s infrastructure application and thus are not progressing to the planned timeline.
The Quality-of-Service system in place at Dublin Airport adjusts the price caps based on the level of service provided, to incentivise the delivery of high-quality airport services. For the 2026 Determination, the IAA will again engage with the Passenger Advisory Group to assist it in understanding the extent to which passenger priorities may, or may not, have changed and to identify any potential new metrics which are of importance to passengers.

The IAA expects to publish the 2026 Draft Determination, which will lay out draft proposals for the next regulatory period, in May 2026. The 2026 Final Determination is due to be published in October 2026.

The consultation material is published here on the IAA’s website:
https://www.iaa.ie/commercial-aviation/economic-regulation/airport-charges/2026-determination