page_title: Dublin Airport
section_title: Expanding in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s
hierarchical_section_title: Dublin Airport / History / Expanding in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s
caption_attribution_description: English: Aer Lingus (EI-BXB) Boeing 737-400 aircraft, Dublin Airport, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, May 1994
context_page_description: Dublin Airport is an international airport serving Dublin, the capital city of Ireland. It is operated by DAA. The airport is located 7 km north of Dublin, in Collinstown, near Swords, Dublin.
  In 2019, 32.9 million passengers passed through the airport, making it the airport's busiest year on record. It is the 12th busiest airport in Europe, and is by far the busiest of Ireland's airports by total passenger traffic; it also has the greatest traffic levels on the island of Ireland, followed by Belfast International Airport.
  The airport has an extensive short and medium haul network, served by an array of carriers, as well as a significant long-haul network focused on North America, the Middle East and East Asia. It serves as the headquarters of Ireland's flag carrier – Aer Lingus, regional airline Stobart Air, Europe's largest low-cost carrier – Ryanair, and ASL Airlines Ireland, together with another two airlines, CityJet and Norwegian Air International.
  United States border preclearance services are available at the airport for U.S.-bound passengers. Shannon Airport is the only other airport in Europe to offer this facility.
context_section_description: Throughout the 1950s Dublin Airport expanded with virtually uninterrupted traffic growth. Runway extensions and terminal enhancements were carried out to deal with the influx of traffic and passengers. New airlines began serving the airport also. These included British European Airways, Sabena, and BKS.
  In 1958, a new transatlantic service was started by Aer Lingus via Shannon Airport. By the mid 1950s, it was clear that the original terminal building was too small to cope with growing passenger numbers. A new North Terminal was opened in June 1959. Originally, the plan was that North Terminal would handle all US and European flights, but instead it became the arrivals terminal for all Dublin Airport passengers, while the original passenger terminal was used for departures.
  During the 1960s, the number of scheduled carriers continued to grow. By the close of the 1960s, a sizeable number of Boeing 737s, BAC One-Elevens, Boeing 707s and Hawker Siddeley Tridents were using the airport regularly. To cope with larger aircraft in the late 1960s new departure gate piers were added close to the old terminal to cope with larger aircraft. These piers would subsequently be connected to Terminal 1. During 1969, the airport handled 1,737,151 passengers.
  The advent of wide-body aircraft posed opportunities and challenges for aviation. In 1971, Aer Lingus took delivery of two new Boeing 747 aircraft; the first one arrived in March and, shortly afterwards, performed a flyover above O'Connell Street in Dublin on Saint Patrick's Day; a third Boeing 747 was delivered later that decade. To cope with this, a new £10 million passenger terminal capable of handling six million passengers per year, which became known as Terminal 1, was opened in June 1972. The growth which was anticipated at Dublin's airport (and provided for through heavy investment by the airport and Aer Lingus) during the 1970s did not materialise immediately.
  The airport was bombed by the Ulster Defence Association in 1975.
caption: An Aer Lingus Boeing 737-400 and a British Airways ATR 42
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