Dublin Airport runways and flight paths

Three runways

Dublin Airport has three runways [1]:

• South runway, 10R/28L, 2,637 m long [2]. It is open 24 hours [1].
• North runway, 10L/28R, 3,109 m long [2], about 1.69 km north of the older main runway. It opened on 24 August 2022 [3].
• Crosswind runway, 16/34, 2,072 m long [2], pointing roughly north–south.

Each runway has two names, one for each direction. Aircraft landing towards the west use the 28 end; aircraft landing towards the east use the 10 end. L and R mark the left and right of the parallel pair.

The wind decides

Aircraft take off and land into the wind, and air traffic control chooses the runway on weather, safety and planning grounds [1]. Dublin’s wind is westerly about 70% of the time. Then arrivals come in from the east, runway 28L is preferred for landing, and departures use 28L or 28R [1]. When the wind is easterly, about 30% of the time, arrivals come in from the west on 10L or 10R, and 10R is preferred for departures [1].

The official rules lean towards the westerly direction. Between 06:00 and 23:00 the parallel runways are required whenever the crosswind is 20 knots or less, and runway 28 remains the preferred direction even with a tailwind of up to 10 knots, provided braking action is good [2].

The north runway’s hours

The north runway’s hours have been fought over since before it opened. The published procedures still say 10L/28R is not used for take-off or landing between 23:00 and 07:00, except for safety, maintenance, exceptional traffic, bad weather, air traffic control faults or emergencies at other airports [2], and daa’s runway page lists it as operating from 07:00 to 23:00 [1]. In July 2025 An Coimisiún Pleanála decided the runway may operate from 6am to midnight, with no take-offs or landings between midnight and 5.59am, under a night-time noise quota and a cap of 35,672 night movements a year [4]. Check daa for the hours in force on a given night.

Departures from 28R must diverge by at least 30 degrees towards the north-west before following their routes [3], which spreads them away from aircraft leaving the south runway.

When the crosswind runway comes out

Runway 16/34 is used occasionally, typically when strong north or south winds make it the safer choice [1], and its use is kept to an absolute minimum [2]. Southerly winds are awkward for an airport built east–west: on 31 August 2025, gusts of around 30 knots from the south forced several runway changes and nine diversions, and Met Éireann noted that Dublin does not normally get winds from that direction [5].

Where arrivals fly

Arrivals follow standard arrival routes to the Point Merge arcs, which space them out before each makes a single turn towards the runway [7] [8]. They then fly a straight final approach for at least the last 11 km at a 3 degree slope, about 1,800 feet high where they join it [6]. In the usual westerly, that final approach lies over the Irish Sea and the coast east of the airport; in an easterly it lies over the country to the west.

Where departures fly

Departures follow standard instrument departures and must stay inside noise preferential routes until 3,000 feet from the south and crosswind runways, or 4,000 feet from the north runway. After that air traffic control usually sends them more directly towards their destination [7]. Larger jets taking off from 10R towards the east keep straight ahead for 5 nautical miles before turning north, or 6 before turning south [2]. The corridors do not apply to light aircraft and turboprops, and weather or traffic can move any flight off its usual track [7].

Noise from all of this is regulated by the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority, an independent directorate within Fingal County Council [9].

What Skylark’s Dublin page shows

The Dublin Airport live page shows the current wind, the full METAR weather report and which runway direction that wind favours. It is a wind comparison. It does not know which runway air traffic control has actually assigned.

To see the runway in use, watch the live map: if arrivals are lining up from over the sea to the east, Dublin is landing on 28; if they come in from the west, it is on 10. The 3D view makes the approach line easy to see. For the terminal-side view of other Irish airports, see Irish airports on Skylark.