In 2007 the North Runway got planning permission. The assessment behind it had the planes flying straight out.
In 2020 daa and the air navigation side of the Irish Aviation Authority agreed how the new runway would work. The departure routes, they wrote, would be developed “to best utilise reduced departure intervals and enhance runway throughput”. Noise was a consideration.
In August 2022 the runway opened. The departures turned, at about 400 feet, by 30 degrees and more, over people the assessment never looked at.
So who designed the turn?
In March 2026 an Oireachtas committee asked who sets the flight paths. The Department of Transport answered. daa “is responsible for the design and maintenance of flight paths into and out of the airport. That is the legal position.” But “The DAA obviously does not have expertise in the design of flight paths”. So AirNav, the air traffic service, does the design “on behalf of the DAA”. And the Aviation Authority approves it, for safety.
Remember “obviously”. Story 11 takes it back to the Department.
So the law gives the job to the one body that obviously can’t do it. Fine. It hires someone. Let’s ask them.
AirNav: the design work “is carried out by a certified third-party entity”. AirNav’s own role “is technical and facilitative”. It doesn’t set “the core design criteria”.
The Aviation Authority: it checked them for safety and approved them. That “should not be confused with any suggestion that … the IAA thinks that they are the optimal flightpaths”.
Dublin Airport’s managing director: “Flight paths were not part of that planning permission.” And the company that “actually designed the north runway flight paths” was ASAP, in Slovakia.
So we wrote to ASAP. ASAP asked for the letter in Slovak. Then it told us that questions about the design of the procedures should go to AirNav and daa, as the competent organisations.
Which brings us back to the start.
We asked daa for the design brief: the document that told someone to design the turn and what to aim for. daa searched. It holds none.
We asked AirNav whether a chartered engineer signed off the turn. It could find no record that approving the route depended on a chartered engineer signing it off.
We asked all four, daa, AirNav, the Aviation Authority and the Department, for the aeronautical study: the piece of work that weighs a route against what’s under it. Three of them have nothing. daa says it has a safety assessment, but won’t let anyone see it.
So, here’s where we’ve landed. The law gives the design to daa. The Department says daa has no expertise in it. AirNav, the Department says, designs it on daa’s behalf; AirNav says its role is facilitative and the criteria aren’t its call. The Aviation Authority approved it for safety and says that doesn’t mean they’re the best routes. The company that drew it points back at AirNav and daa. And nobody will show us a brief, a study, or a signature that says what the turn was for.
Everyone did their bit. Nobody had the job of the whole thing, because nobody was ever given it. That’s not a cover-up. It’s worse. It’s the design.
Sources
- An Bord Pleanála, decision granting permission for the North Runway, ref PL06F.217429 (Fingal ref F04A/1755), 29 August 2007; and the Environmental Impact Statement it was granted on, Dublin Airport Authority, December 2004, with its Addendum of August 2005 (departures assessed as flying straight out). Fingal County Council planning file F04A/1755: https://planning.agileapplications.ie/fingal/application-details/37968
- daa and the Irish Aviation Authority’s air navigation service, New Tower and Parallel Runway Concept of Operations at Dublin Airport (ref DUB.AM.AIRS.CONOPS.DAP/IAA.790), effective 6 November 2020 (departure routes “to best utilise reduced departure intervals and enhance runway throughput”; noise abatement among the design considerations). Released to NRTG under AIE request 2621 (daa), 30 June 2026
- AIP Ireland (published by the Irish Aviation Authority, now by AirNav Ireland), Dublin Airport Runway 28R standard instrument departure charts, EIDW AD 2.24-13.1, as published for the North Runway’s opening in August 2022 (turns of 30 degrees and more begun at about 400 feet above the ground). Current edition: https://www.airnav.ie/air-traffic-management/aeronautical-information-management/aip-package; NRTG holds a copy of the 2022 edition
- Joint Committee on Transport, evidence of the Department of Transport, 4 March 2026 (daa “is responsible for the design and maintenance of flight paths into and out of the airport. That is the legal position.”; “The DAA obviously does not have expertise in the design of flight paths”; AirNav designs “on behalf of the DAA”; approval by the Irish Aviation Authority “from a safety perspective”). Official report: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_transport/2026-03-04/
- AirNav Ireland, briefing note to the Department of Transport on its role in instrument flight procedures for Dublin Airport, 13 May 2025 (“is carried out by a certified third-party entity”; “technical and facilitative”; “the core design criteria”). Released to NRTG under FOI request 2025.122 (Department of Transport), 26 June 2025
- Irish Aviation Authority, observation to An Bord Pleanála on the draft decision in case ABP-314485-22, 23 December 2024 (“should not be confused with any suggestion that … the IAA thinks that they are the optimal flightpaths”). An Coimisiún Pleanála case page, under responses and submissions to the draft order: https://www.pleanala.ie/en-ie/case/314485
- Joint Committee on Transport, evidence of daa’s managing director of Dublin Airport, 24 March 2026 (“Flight paths were not part of that planning permission”; ASAP as the company that “actually designed the north runway flight paths”). Official report: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_transport/2026-03-24/
- ASAP s.r.o. (Slovakia), two email replies to NRTG’s letter of 9 July 2026, both 10 July 2026, in Slovak (the request for a Slovak text; the referral of questions on the design of the procedures to AirNav Ireland and daa). NRTG holds copies
- daa, decisions on AIE request 2610 (the design brief for the Runway 28R departures), 27 May 2026, with the internal review decision of 2 July 2026, and on AIE request 2620 (the commissioning of the Runway 28R departures), 30 June 2026: no design brief held. NRTG holds copies
- AirNav Ireland, decision on NRTG’s AIE request on design authority, approval and competency for the Runway 28R departures, 22 July 2026 (no record that approval was contingent on sign-off by a chartered engineer). NRTG holds a copy
- Decisions on NRTG’s requests for an aeronautical study of the Runway 28R departures: AirNav Ireland, AIE decision, 20 May 2026; daa, AIE request 2613, 16 June 2026; Irish Aviation Authority, AIE decision, 17 June 2026; Department of Transport, AIE request AIE-2026-010, 1 July 2026. NRTG holds copies