1 comment · Apr 01, 2025

Dublin's Airport Revolutionary Circular Runway Construction Now Underway

In 2019, 32.9 million passengers passed through the Dublin Airport (Irish: Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath) (IATA: DUB, ICAO: EIDW), located in the capital city of Ireland, making it the airport's busiest year on record, and proudly establishing Dublin airport as the 12th busiest airport in Europe. In response to this extensive growth rate, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has officially announced the commencement of an extensive construction project that will run costs up to USD1 billion and is projected to increase Dublin Airport’s capacity by 50 million passengers a year.

Over USD454 million will be invested between 2020 and 2027 to ensure increased efficiency in airport operations, accompanied by a higher flow rate of passengers and a much greater volume of airline traffic, mostly due to the unique incorporation of the world's first commercially approved circular paved runway that will be utilized in conjunction with the existing traditional linear airport runways.

The concept of the Circular or Endless runway is not a new one. In a 1919 article published in "Popular Science", a circular runway was proposed to be constructed on top of selected skyscrapers located on the island of Manhattan, thus eliminating the need for travel to and from the local airports to the city core. Soon afterward, the concept was considered for the construction of a similar circular runway on the roof of Kings Cross railway station in London.

NLR

Unfortunately neither the US, nor the British projects gained much public nor political support and were eventually abandoned, that is, until the 1960s, when the circular runway concept was once again taken up by a marine officer, who actually performed a number of successful test flights that included multiple take-offs and landings at a circular track designed for testing cars. This work stimulated interest, resulting in a large number of patents with runways shaped like circles or ovals. In 2017. the idea once again regained considerable interest from a European consortium, leading to a number of publications and studies on the feasibility of the revolutionary runway design.

This Dublin Airport Authority project is welcome news as the last major improvement to the airport infrastructure occurred in late 2010 when the completion of passenger Terminal 2, two new boarding gate areas, and a new campus road network. The new runway is scheduled to be completed in 2021 and in all projected total expenditure is in excess of USD3.5 billion including the collective improvements to the airport infrastructure, including expanding parking facilities, a new airport high-speed elevated rail that will connect all terminals and parking areas, thus increasing passenger flow within the airport terminals to compensate for the increased aircraft flow in arriving and departing aircraft. It is expected the circular runway will only be available for those crews who have completed an approved and current "circular runway rating" that will allow them to operate safely and effectively on the new non-traditional runway layout. At this time, only Air Lingus, "Ireland's flag carrier" has officially commenced circular, or "endless runway” ground-based training for its crews, and are expected to be the first to utilize Dublin's new endless runway airport layout. Regional airline Stobart Air, and ASL Airlines Ireland are expected to remain restricted to Dublin airports’ linear runways for the time being.

A spokesperson for the DAA said that the hybrid runway combination should allow for extensive short and medium-haul commercial traffic, served by an array of carriers, as well as a steady and significant growth in long-haul airline routes focused on North America and the Middle East.

The official opening ceremony for Dublin’s circular runway complex is slated for completion by November 2021

Wishing you all a very happy APRIL FOOLS DAY!