Aer Lingus chief executive Lynne Embleton has criticised the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and Fingal County Council for seeking to limit utilisation of the new runway at Dublin airport. The second parallel runway was planned decades ago (and in its current location), with full public knowledge of the airport’s intentions. It was delivered on time and on budget, due in large part to the foresight of the airport management in acquiring the necessary land, at modest cost, so far in advance.

The runway has cost €320m, the lowest figure reported for a main runway in a European city in recent times.

The Aer Lingus chief highlighted the regulators’ desire to impose two distinct restrictions. There is to be a cap on the annual number of passengers, only slightly ahead of the volume currently served, and a separate set of restrictions on the hours of the day during which aircraft can operate.

The passenger cap, is aimed at managing access transport volumes on the neighbouring road system, while the night-time restrictions are about aircraft noise. Night-time restrictions are common at European airports, some more onerous than others, but passengers caps are an unusual imposition.

Many airports have capacity constraints, are unable to expand and must place limits on the allocation of take-off and landing slots to airlines. Dublin foresaw this development and the twin runway configuration should enable the number of aircraft movements to double.

This would eventually require extra capacity in passenger terminals and more aircraft parking, but space is available. Instead, the airlines are facing rationing of runway capacity when there is plenty, delivered without the cost overshoots which bedevil so many State capital projects in Ireland.

Embleton notes that the second restriction, on night-time usage, could do more damage to Aer Lingus than the passenger cap. Both restrictions have drawn trenchant criticism from Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary and from other airline customers. But Aer Lingus is the only Irish airline which operates long-haul routes – Ryanair operates almost exclusively to the UK and continental Europe, with a few routes to slightly more distant destinations like the Canary Islands, and uses narrow-body aircraft suited to its route system.

Aer Lingus has a fleet which includes bigger aircraft with longer range and has been seeking to expand the role of Dublin as a connecting hub for transatlantic travel, feeding passengers from its short-haul flights into these bigger aircraft headed to the USA and Canada.

At one time, Embleton’s predecessors in Aer Lingus management were unable to develop this business due to the compulsory Shannon stopover – all flights departing Dublin were forced by government to stop at Shannon in both directions, destroying the economics.

The policy was eventually scrapped and around two million passengers at Dublin nowadays never leave the terminal. They are heading in the right direction from the start of their journeys and avoid back-tracking (as well as needless carbon emissions).

Aer Lingus is now part of the International Airlines Group (IAG) which includes British Airways and the Spanish carrier Iberia. Slot scarcity at Heathrow, BA’s main hub, was a motive for IAG’s acquisition of Aer Lingus, believing that the long-planned new Dublin runway would open up expansion opportunities since a third runway at Heathrow will take a decade or more if it is ever built.

BA has been keen to route connecting traffic in straight lines wherever possible and has an alliance with Finnair, which had been developing connections to east Asia through Helsinki, a plan now frustrated with the closure of Russian airspace.At other extremities of Europe, the Portuguese government plans a big new airport in Lisbon, with BA rumoured as a possible buyer of the national airline TAP; while Istanbul’s new airport is attracting passengers connecting beyond Europe who might otherwise be starting their journeys in the wrong direction.

Since the popular evening departures from many big North American airports have early morning arrival times in Dublin, any restrictions on early morning aircraft movements are a particular headache for Aer Lingus.

They do not suit short-haul operators either, since they wish to get their fleets in the sky, earning money, as early as possible. The low fares to which the Irish public have become accustomed are not possible without efficient aircraft utilisation.

Local residents are entitled to register their noise concerns and it would be cavalier to ignore them.

But the airport has a generous scheme to subvent noise insulation and will purchase homes at a premium price in certain circumstances. There will be people keen to buy them, including those who place a high convenience value on living close to a major international airport.

Transport minister Darragh O’Brien has the option to ensure that a public capital project, a new runway delivered as promised, is not left largely idle.