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Dublin Airport (DUB): flight delays and compensation

Dublin Airport – annual passengers: 33+ million (2024). As an EU airport, every flight departing from here is covered by EU Regulation 261/2004. Here is what to expect if your flight was delayed or cancelled here, or you were stranded.

By the EU261 Flight Delay editorial team Last reviewed: Reading time: 6 min How we write our guides

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In short: Any flight departing from Dublin Airport that arrives 3 or more hours late, is cancelled less than 14 days before departure, or is overbooked can give €250–600 per passenger. EU261 applies to every departure. National enforcement body: Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

Live at Dublin (DUB) today

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About the airport

Dublin is Ireland's main airport and the home base of both Aer Lingus and Ryanair. It has dense links to the UK and continental Europe and a large transatlantic operation, helped by US border preclearance for flights to the United States.

Dublin is an EU airport, so every departing flight is covered by EU261, whichever airline operates it. Flights from the UK to Dublin are covered by UK261 as UK departures.

Busiest routes from Dublin – and what a delay is worth

The 30 busiest routes on Eurostat’s 2024 data, with the compensation for a 3-hour-plus delay or a late cancellation in each direction.

DestinationPassengers 2024DistanceFrom DUBReturn
London LHR1,903,141449 km€250£220
Amsterdam AMS1,297,903750 km€250€250
Manchester MAN1,063,307264 km€250£220
London LGW1,052,966485 km€250£220
London STN956,463470 km€250£220
Málaga AGP831,6291,868 km€400€400
Birmingham BHX813,198321 km€250£220
Edinburgh EDI739,476336 km€250£220
Barcelona BCN713,0601,486 km€250€250
Paris CDG697,102786 km€250€250
Faro FAO666,7411,830 km€400€400
Madrid MAD600,9971,452 km€250€250
Frankfurt FRA554,7431,086 km€250€250
Lisbon LIS543,7261,643 km€400€400
Liverpool LPL517,843227 km€250£220
Rome FCO502,8591,886 km€400€400
Glasgow GLA501,143296 km€250£220
Lanzarote ACE476,2662,787 km€400€400
Brussels BRU469,861784 km€250€250
Bristol BRS433,961331 km€250£220
Berlin BER416,3891,327 km€250€250
London LTN402,160433 km€250£220
Munich MUC385,2021,381 km€250€250
Leeds LBA359,849307 km€250£220
Zurich ZRH345,5431,238 km€250€250
Alicante ALC322,5381,740 km€400€400
Tenerife TFS312,6122,946 km€400€400
Paris BVA305,660729 km€250€250
Palma de Mallorca PMI285,4111,687 km€400€400
Copenhagen CPH281,0011,241 km€250€250

* only with an EU (or UK) airline. Passengers: Eurostat, both directions, routes reported by EU/EEA airports.

Air traffic flow delays at Dublin (2025)

EUROCONTROL records the delay imposed on arriving flights when the airport or the airspace around it cannot take more traffic (air traffic flow management, “ATFM”). In 2025, 127,668 flights arrived at DUB; 1,624 of them were held back this way, 918 by more than 15 minutes – an average of 0.33 minutes per arrival.

What caused the ATFM delay

  • weather72%
  • aerodrome capacity25%
  • other3%

Average ATFM delay per arrival by month (min)

  1. J
  2. F
  3. M
  4. A
  5. M
  6. J
  7. J
  8. A
  9. S
  10. O
  11. N
  12. D

Worst days: 3 October 2025 – 7,665 minutes, mostly weather; 14 September 2025 – 6,143 minutes, mostly weather; 31 August 2025 – 4,626 minutes, mostly weather.

2026 so far (to 30 September 2026): 100,668 arrivals, 0.36 minutes of ATFM delay per arrival (worse than 2025), mainly aerodrome capacity (52%) and weather (38%).

Check what happened at DUB on your travel day →

What this means for a claim: ATFM delays come from weather (72% here), air traffic control capacity and staffing (0%) or airport limits – causes airlines often cite as extraordinary circumstances. They are only part of the story: most long delays come from the airline’s own operation (technical faults, crew, late inbound aircraft), which this data does not show. Source: EUROCONTROL.

Typical delay causes at Dublin Airport

  • Atlantic storms, such as Storm Éowyn in January 2025, and winter fog – extraordinary circumstances, but the airline must still provide care and re-routing.
  • A planning cap on annual passenger numbers limits growth and leaves the schedule little room to recover from disruption.
  • Knock-on delays on Ryanair and Aer Lingus short-haul rotations – the airline's own risk.

Airlines you are likely to fly with here

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What happened?Step 1 of 4

What happened to your flight?
Where did you fly from and to?

With a connection, enter your first departure and your final destination – compensation is based on the total distance.

How late did you arrive at your final destination?

What counts is when the aircraft doors opened at your destination – not the departure delay.

When were you told about the cancellation?
When did you arrive on the replacement flight?
Which airline operated the flight?
When was the flight?

How many passengers were on the booking?

1 passenger

Every passenger gets their own compensation, children too. Infants under 2 without their own seat do not count.

  • Free, no sign-up
  • Fee only if successful (35%)
  • AirHelp: Trustpilot 4.5/5

Rather skip the questions? Start a claim with AirHelp straight away

Local information

  • If the airline does not pay, you can complain to the Irish enforcement body, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), or go to court; the European Small Claims Procedure works for cross-border cases.
  • Ryanair is an Irish airline, so EU261 also applies to its flights into the EU from outside the EU, for example from Morocco.

Frequently asked questions

Can I claim compensation for a flight departing from Dublin Airport?

Yes. DUB is an EU airport, so every flight departing from it is covered by EU Regulation 261/2004, whatever the airline and wherever it is based.

Can I claim compensation for a flight arriving at Dublin Airport?

If the flight departed from an EU airport: yes, with any airline. If it departed from the UK: yes, under UK261, with any airline. If it departed from elsewhere: only if an EU airline operated it.

How is the length of the delay measured?

By your arrival time at your final destination – more precisely, the moment the aircraft door opens at the gate. It must be at least 3 hours after the scheduled arrival time.

Related guides

Information only, not legal advice. Passenger figures are approximate and based on the airports' published statistics; punctuality figures are from the UK Civil Aviation Authority. We earn a commission when a claim submitted through our partner links is successful.

Sources

  1. Eurostat – air passenger transport routes between partner airports and main airports (2024) – Eurostat
  2. EUROCONTROL – airport arrival ATFM delays (open performance data) – EUROCONTROL

We check every rule against the sources above. Spotted an error? Tell us – see our editorial policy.