Dublin Airport’s North Runway does not fly the routes its planning permission was assessed on.
Since August 2022 its departures have turned early, over people the assessment never put under a flight path. We are residents who read the documents. This is what they say.
13,923
people newly overflown
by the routes flown since 2022, within 1.5 km each side of the track. Routes consistent with the assessed design: 998.
30,186
people newly affected
within 3 km each side of the routes flown. Routes consistent with the assessed design: 1,164.
74.6 dBA
at Kilcoskan National School
the median peak of a departure, measured on daa’s own monitor, 167 times a day. The loudest type, the A330-300: 80.6 dBA.
0
enforcement actions
“ANCA has taken no enforcement actions”: the Minister, September 2026. ANCA is Fingal County Council acting as Dublin Airport’s noise regulator.
The figures come from our two studies, published with their data and methods so anyone can check them: who is overflown and how loud each flight is.
Easterly: already drawn over Malahide
The North Runway’s easterly routes are published, and turn ten degrees left over Malahide, Portmarnock and Drinan. One word in the 2007 permission keeps departures off them. Two things could put them there: both runways in use, or one runway no longer enough.
26,355
people newly overflown
within 1.5 km each side of the North Runway’s easterly routes, where aircraft reach 65 dB, once departures are split between the runways by direction.
137
departures a day at Malahide Community School
once both runways are in use. At 65 dB or louder, 79 of them in school hours: a real easterly day, 26 August 2026, on today’s traffic, departures split between the runways by direction. Today: none.
2031
when one runway falls short
at 43 million passengers, the capacity daa told Fingal it is building for, the south runway alone is about 11 departures a day short, at six, seven and one o’clock. At the fastest rate Dublin has already grown at: 2029.
“preferred”
the only word in the way
“Runway 10R shall be preferred for departing aircraft”: the 2007 permission. Preferred, not required. On that August day split by direction: 253 off the south runway, 137 off the north. The south runway was preferred.
These are modelled figures, from our digital twin of the airport built on daa’s own noise-monitor measurements: typical levels on today’s traffic. We are not proposing departures over Malahide. We are warning that the routes are already published. Watch the video · Write to the Minister
What if the flights went over your house?
The Overhead App takes a real day of North Runway departures and turns the routes until they pass over the place you pick. The runway stays where it is, and every aircraft keeps the height it really flew. You see, and hear, how many flights you would get and how loud they would be.
From the record
Latest
- ‘Too complex’ for four years. Then Fingal decided in a fortnight, using daa’s wordsFingal warned daa in 2022 about “the permitted flight paths”. For four years it called the complaints too complex. Then it decided in a fortnight, in daa’s words. Now it goes to An Coimisiún Pleanála.
- NRTG takes Ireland to Europe over Dublin Airport
North Runway Technical Group files formal complaints with European Commission, European Parliament, and Aarhus Convention DUBLIN, 2 March 2026. The North Runway Technical Group (NRTG), a voluntary group with aviation and engineering expertise, including current and former airline pilots, has today filed three simultaneous complaints with European institutions over Ireland’s treatment of environmental law at […]