Dublin Airport has a new €320m runway which opened today.
The 3.1km north runway long facility will provide extra capacity for the airport.
It is 1.7km north of Dublin Airport’s current main runway.
It is the largest infrastructure project in Ireland and promises to create 31,200 jobs and generate €2.2 billion in additional economic activity by 2043.
The project included the building and installation of over 300,000 square metre of new runway and taxiways, 6km of new internal airport roads, 7.5km of electrical cable and more than 2,000 new runway and taxiway lights.
It can service larger long-haul aircraft, including the Boeing 747-8 and Airbus A 380-800.
It was officially opened on Wednesday (24 August) by the take-off of a single commercial flight.
From Thursday (25 August) it will operate between 9am and 1pm and eventually between 7am to 6pm.
It has been planned since the 1960s but was not approved until 2007, in the face of local opposition.
Work began in 2016 and was completed two years later.
The inaugural flight from Dublin Airport’s new north runway was the FR1964 Ryanair flight to Eindhoven which departed just after noon from the new €321 million runway and was live streamed by Dublin Airport. The flight was the only one on North Runway that day.