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Ryanair plans €40m hangar
direction given in the national aviation policy to provide infrastructure that will facilitate promoting Dublin airport as a major international hub, while also meeting the needs of carriers operating point-topoint routes.” ryaNaIr has announced plans to build a new €40m hangar and aircraft maintenance facility at Dublin airport.
Documents seen by the sunday Independent show the development of the airport’s north apron has been earmarked “to facilitate a potential growth in traffic of between three to four million passengers per annum”.
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The documents state the airport is on a trajectory to serve about 40 million passengers per year in the future. last year more than 28.1 million passengers travelled through Dublin airport, but these numbers were affected by the pandemic.
The 2022 figures represent 85pc of the total number of passengers who used the airport in 2019 but data from this year shows numbers are rising.
In February 2023 2.6 million passengers used the airport, a 3pc increase on the same period in 2019. This also represents a 1pc increase on February 2020 — which had been the busiest ever February at the airport.
The investment will result in the creation of 200 new engineering and aircraft mechanic jobs.
The new 120,000 sq ft facility will be used to carry out routine maintenance and repairs on some of the airline’s expanding fleet of aircraft, which is due to reach 600 by 2026.
Construction is to begin later this year and it is expected that the facility will be operational by 2025.
“With a growing fleet we need places to do routine maintenance and heavy maintenance for aircraft, and Dublin is our second largest base and it makes sense to build one here,” ryanair CEo Eddie Wilson told rTÉ.
“so we will have a four bay hangar, which means four aircraft can actually fit into that,” he added.
Mr Wilson expressed confidence that the airline would be able to fill the new roles, despite the pressure on skills in the sector.
He said Ireland has a long history in aircraft maintenance and it is very interesting work.
