Airlines were forced to shell out €1.197 million in compensation to passengers who lodged complaints with Ireland's aviation watchdog in 2024.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) received the pay-outs in respect of 1,726 complaints upheld against airlines operating here.
IAA's annual report for 2024 revealed that it obtained €360,104 in refunds for passengers resulting from its intervention.
It states that 1,943 complaints against airlines were not upheld in favour of the complainant.
The main reason, the report says, was that the air carrier was able to prove that a disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances and therefore would be exempt from paying compensation.
Of the 1,726 complaints upheld, 973 complaints related to flight cancellations, 677 complaints concerned long delays while 64 complaints related to ‘denied boarding’.
It also revealed that last year, Aer Lingus accounted for 33% of all complaints with Ryanair accounting for 31%.
“Overall, complaints against Aer Lingus are down 6pc year on year despite significant disruption in June and July 2024 due to industrial action which resulted in the cancellation of over 500 flights,” the report states.
The report also reveals that the number of complaints submitted in 2024 was down 30% in comparison to the 2023 complaint levels.
Dublin Airport reports its service quality evaluation to the IAA monthly, with reference to the 22 metrics and the report states that security queue times have improved markedly since 2023 where in 2024, security queue times exceeded 30 minutes on six separate days and this compares to 20 throughout 2023.
Of these six days, there was one occasion of the security queue waiting time exceeding 45 minutes.
The report states that security queue times remained below 20 minutes more than 70% of the time in each month of the year.
The IAA also monitors quality of service at Dublin Airport across 15 different passenger satisfaction metrics where Dublin Airport achieved at least one bonus threshold in each quarter of the year. However, information on public transport on arrival was below minimum standards in each quarter of the year.
For performance in 2024, Dublin Airport incurred a passenger Quality of Service (QoS) bonus of €4.5 million and a penalty of €3.8 million, resulting in a net bonus of €0.7million.
The IAA last year recorded a pre-tax profit of €2.57m as revenues totalled €37.43m where IAA’s revenues are generated through charges and fees raised from regulated entities and the users of its services.
The IAA’s legal costs last year totalled €1.55m. The report also states that the determination of legal costs in respect of a legacy defamation case from 2014 were settled in February 2025 for €407,486 following a Supreme Court decision.
Numbers employed totalled 189 with 134 engaged in safety regulation. Staff costs totalled €22m and the report shows that 91 employees earned more than €100,000 that included five in the €175,000 to €200,000 pay range, 24 earning between €150,000 and €175,000 and 41 earning between €125,000 and €150,000.
