Children's Rights Over Flights

Children’s Rights Over Flights is an all-volunteer campaign group, formed in 2024, directly in response to the campaign by vested interests to lift Dublin Airport’s ‘passenger cap’ to 40 million – which we learned would lead to flight traffic pollution increasing by 22% by 2031, even as climate change and the outlook for our kids worsens. Climate harm, pollution and children’s rights are rarely touched upon in the national conversation on the passenger cap and we are changing that through our campaigning.  Every sector, including the aviation sector, must play its part in climate action - for every child.
 

We are currently campaigning against either the raising or the abolition of the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, a move which, as well as harming our climate future, would also subject children living near the airport and under flight paths to increased air and noise pollution. We have supported local community campaign groups in their actions against harmful levels of aviation, including night flights. We seize opportunities to counteract misinformation in the media, while using each occasion to raise public awareness about the impacts of aviation expansion on the rights of children. We advocate for responsible approaches to aviation as the climate crisis worsens, and we make submissions to the planning process and consultations.

We have joined the international network of campaigns on aviation and climate Stay Grounded. We work in solidarity with WrongWayDaa a group of people who live close to Dublin Airport who are also campaigning against Dublin Airport expansion. We also work closely with Friends of the Earth Ireland.

We campaign for school sustainability programmes to include education about emissions from various travel modes entailed in school trips, in order to encourage transport modes that are less polluting than aviation.  We also support the ByLandAndSea.ie initiative on land and sea transport to and from Ireland.