Dublin Airport ended 2025 on a high-pressure note, setting a new one-day traffic record on 30 December as more than 100,000 passengers flowed through its two terminals. The daa, which manages the airport, said the milestone was the peak of a 19-day festive surge that is forecast to move 1.5 million travellers between 18 December and 6 January.
Arriving traffic was dominated by Irish citizens working abroad who flew home for Christmas as well as long-haul visitors taking advantage of a weaker euro to squeeze an extra European city into their year-end holidays. Outbound flows were fuelled by winter-sun getaways, ski breaks and corporate commuters rushing to close deals before companies shut their books for 2025.
Operationally, the airport’s performance held up better than many expected. Newly installed CT scanners—now live in both terminals—removed the 100 ml liquids rule and helped keep average security wait-times at 18 minutes despite the crush. The bottlenecks shifted landside: kerb-side traffic slowed to a crawl at peak times and short-stay car parks reported being oversubscribed for several hours.
![Dublin Airport Handles Record-Breaking 100,000 Passengers in Single Day]()
If your itinerary now or in the future involves destinations that still require a visa, VisaHQ can take the stress out of the paperwork. The company’s Ireland portal (https://www.visahq.com/ireland/) lets travellers start applications online, track progress in real time, and even arrange courier collection and delivery—handy extras when Dublin Airport is running at full tilt and every minute counts.
The daa used the occasion to renew its call for the Government to legislate a permanent increase in the airport’s 32-million-passenger planning cap. A High Court ruling suspended enforcement of the cap earlier this year, but airlines have warned they may cap capacity for winter 2026 if legal clarity is not in place soon. A Cabinet memo proposing an interim 36-million cap is expected in January.
For mobility managers, the immediate takeaway is practical: build extra time into early-January itineraries, encourage employees to pre-book parking or use the 24-hour Dublin Bus Route 19, and remind travellers that passport-check queues can still spike when multiple US-bound flights depart together. Longer-term, the passenger-cap debate will determine whether seats to and from Ireland become scarcer—and pricier—in future peak seasons.
Arriving traffic was dominated by Irish citizens working abroad who flew home for Christmas as well as long-haul visitors taking advantage of a weaker euro to squeeze an extra European city into their year-end holidays. Outbound flows were fuelled by winter-sun getaways, ski breaks and corporate commuters rushing to close deals before companies shut their books for 2025.
Operationally, the airport’s performance held up better than many expected. Newly installed CT scanners—now live in both terminals—removed the 100 ml liquids rule and helped keep average security wait-times at 18 minutes despite the crush. The bottlenecks shifted landside: kerb-side traffic slowed to a crawl at peak times and short-stay car parks reported being oversubscribed for several hours.
If your itinerary now or in the future involves destinations that still require a visa, VisaHQ can take the stress out of the paperwork. The company’s Ireland portal (https://www.visahq.com/ireland/) lets travellers start applications online, track progress in real time, and even arrange courier collection and delivery—handy extras when Dublin Airport is running at full tilt and every minute counts.
The daa used the occasion to renew its call for the Government to legislate a permanent increase in the airport’s 32-million-passenger planning cap. A High Court ruling suspended enforcement of the cap earlier this year, but airlines have warned they may cap capacity for winter 2026 if legal clarity is not in place soon. A Cabinet memo proposing an interim 36-million cap is expected in January.
For mobility managers, the immediate takeaway is practical: build extra time into early-January itineraries, encourage employees to pre-book parking or use the 24-hour Dublin Bus Route 19, and remind travellers that passport-check queues can still spike when multiple US-bound flights depart together. Longer-term, the passenger-cap debate will determine whether seats to and from Ireland become scarcer—and pricier—in future peak seasons.
