Dublin Airport’s higher car parking prices “haven’t been a deterrent” with car parks nearly completely booked out this week, the DAA has said.

Airport operator DAA says parking facilities are “very full” for the coming days and is warning passengers this is likely to be the case for some time yet.

DAA Head of Communications Graeme McQueen told The Pat Kenny Show passenger numbers are at “record levels” - but the airport has significantly less car parking space than before the pandemic. 

“The number of car parking spaces is down by around one fifth,” he said. 

“That’s because a privately owned car park that operated pre-COVID has never reopened. 

“So, we’re down 6,200 spaces on the campus; that’s increased the squeeze and demand for our own carpark [and] we’ve quite simply hit a crunch point this weekend.” 

Dublin Airport Terminal One 1 carpark at sunset Ireland

The DAA uses a ‘dynamic pricing model’ which means the price of parking a car gets more expensive during times of peak demand.  

“The aim of that is to control demand,” Mr McQueen said. 

“So, the aim of that is to get everybody who really needs to park [a space] and make sure they’re able to do so. 

“On this occasion, people have still booked anyway - so, the prices haven’t been a deterrent. 

“Certainly, we’ve found them booked out in recent days and it’s looking like certainly through this weekend and into the bank holiday weekend demand is really high. 

“So, the message is, if you’re travelling and you haven’t pre-booked a space already and you can’t do so online, you may want to look at an alternate option like a bus, a taxi or getting dropped off at the airport.” 

The DAA’s bid to buy the disused car park has been accepted by the owner and Mr McQueen said it now being examined by the Competition Authority.

Main image: Car park in Dublin Airport. Picture by: Alamy.com