Irish Budget announcement today - Air tax will be reduced to zero from April 2014. Airlines told they are expected to develop new routes and increase frequency.

For years airlines moaned and groaned about the travel tax, will we now see all those new routes we were missing out on? I won't hold my breath!

I agree but it could save routes that are not doing well to.

Ryanair may expand services after axing of travel tax - Independent.ie

Extra staff for pre clearance and its to be expanded by 5,200 sq ft

US immigration boosts Dublin staff to process American fliers - Independent.ie

travel tax in Ireland
 

UK government please take note, it's time to follow suit.

Oh look! is that another flock of pigs flying overhead?

APD is far too much of a moneyspinner for UK Govt, unfortunately. Short term gain, instead of long term thinking.

And in the unlikely event they ever did scrap it, it would only be based on a date 5, 10yrs hence.

Flynonstop will not begin operations on Thursday from DUB, gone bust this morning.

According to MOL Ryanair hope to announce 700,000+ seats and new routes from DUB within the next two weeks.

Am writing this while flying Dublin to JFK on an Aer Lingus A330, wifi 19 euros btw

Any idea why we had two security checks at Dublin ? that's three times this morning I've had to take my shoes off, I'm not moaning just wondering why.

The first one is the standard one that all passengers leaving from Dublin undergo.

Then, you have to have a TSA compliant one before boarding the flight to America. When you go through pre-clearance, it's as though you're boarding at a US airport. In theory, you could connect onto another US internal flight after this without a check. In practice, the layout of US airports never seems to allow for this.

If landing in the USA from DUB and using pre-clearance and connecting to a domestic flight, it's treated as domestic to domestic (USA security also done at DUB). Most American airports are set up for just that, as most transfer traffic in the USA is domestic to domestic.

International to international transfers do not exist in the USA (who knows why!) hence the need to clear border control and customs, pick up bags, go upstairs (most of the time), check in, go through security, then back to the gate. If you're lucky, your bags may be checked through, but the same palaver has to be gone through. AFAIK it's always been so.

Miami allows for intl-intl transfers without the need to collect your bags and allowed to stay airside.

MAYBE they could get an A332 to be profitable on Dublin-Shanghai/Beijing, but it would be tight as I doubt they could fully load it on 2,600m runway. Nothing larger

My experience has been that you only get the benefit of having gone through the TSA scan if your flight leaves from the same terminal as your flight from Dublin arrives.

For example, the last time I flew into O'Hare, I had to go out into the public area, take the people mover between terminals and go back through security. IIRCI arrived in Terminal 5 and left from Terminal 3.

Bags may be transferred, but all passengers need to go through immigration, customs and security.

Do you know if the Ryanair route PMO-DUB will be confirmed for summer 2014?

Any rumours regarding Ryanair's expansion?

Apparently Thomas Cook are to start flights to Cancun next year.

No details of frequency yet but will likely be 1-2 weekly.

Almost 1.8 million passengers in October up 5%

Europe 930,000 up 2%
UK 642,000 up 5%
Transatlantic 160,000 up 13%
Middle East/Africa 43,000 up 11%
Domestic 6,000 up 19%

Year to date 17.3 million up 5%.

Latest News > 1.8 Million Passengers In October At Dublin Airport