Ryanair claim Leinster face away match flight chaos this winter

Leo Cullen’s Leinster squad face a potential winter travel headache as restrictions on the number of flights to and from Dublin airport could force them to travel to upcoming matches in the UK and France from either Belfast, Cork or Shannon airports.

The Irish province play at Bristol on December 8 and at La Rochelle on January 12 in the Investec Champions Cup, while they also have a February 14 game away to Ospreys in Swansea in the URC.

Leinster have struck a deal with Ryanair for charter flights to fly Cullen’s squad to and from these matches, but the Irish-headquartered airline fears the Irish Aviation Authority will reject their request for extra flight slots out of Dublin.

A round trip by road from the Leinster training base at UCD to Belfast airport would be 372kms, to Shannon 468kms and Cork 544kms compared to just 34kms to Dublin airport.

The IAA have capped capacity at Dublin airport at 14.4million passengers from October to March, meaning additional landing and take-off slots must be applied for winter charter flights.

Meanwhile, the Dublin Airport Authority said last week it expected to breach the passenger cap this year, with Dublin Airport handling 33 million passengers during 2024.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary met with Irish junior transport minister James Lawless on Wednesday regarding the passenger cap and he claimed their talks were unproductive, fuelling the possibility that Leinster will have to travel by bus from Dublin to either Belfast, Shannon or Cork to get to their games in England, France and Wales.

Correspondence seen by RugbyPass read: "Ryanair, Europe’s No1 airline, has applied to the Irish Aviation Authority for extra slots for Leinster Rugby charters to Bristol, La Rochelle and Cardiff in December 2024 and January/February 2025, so that Leinster can fulfil their EPCR and URC fixtures.

“Ryanair has reached agreement with Leinster Rugby on these charters, subject to obtaining slots from the IAA. Ryanair expects the IAA to reject these slots as these are extra flights.”