Dublin Airport operator DAA is to submit an application to increase the capacity of the airport in the autumn.
Kenny Jacobs, Chief Executive Officer at DAA, has said the airport needs to be able to handle 40 million passengers a year by 2030.
Mr Jacobs told The Hard Shoulder this is based on natural population increases.
"Dublin Airport is a 32 million [passenger] airport, it's capped at 32 million [passengers per year]," he said.
"That's a planning restriction attached to Terminal 2 when it was being built.
"By 2030, I think Dublin Airport needs to be a 40 million airport.
"[This is] just to keep pace with the natural increase in population over the coming seven years, with the increase in immigration that we have, with the island of Ireland extra capacity requirements.
"There's lots of people from Northern Ireland [who] come to Dublin to fly - Dublin Airport really is the national airport".
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Mr Jacobs has said the airport will have to expand.
"You need a Dublin Airport of 37 million - even if we say 'We won't fly anymore', you need a Dublin Airport of 37 million," he said.
"We take a long-term view.
"We see Dublin Airport moving to 40 million by 2030, and we'll be submitting a planning application to get that done in the autumn of this year".
Mr Jacobs said these figures are based on people doing the same amount of flying as now.
"If we kept Dublin Airport at 32 million, every single one of us needs to do about 20% to 25% less flying straight away," he said.
"The country's going to get bigger, there's more people coming here, we're a small island economy on the periphery of Europe.
"[There is] a huge dependency on inward travel for jobs, tourism and Irish people love to travel".
Mr Jacobs said new piers would be created at both existing terminals, but a third terminal is not necessary to hit 40 million capacity.
Third terminal
On the prospect of a third terminal in the future, Mr Jacobs said this would need to be built beside the existing terminals rather than the far side of the airfield.
"If Dublin is looking at a point of saying, 'We need a 50 million airport', then a third terminal could be part of that thinking and planning," he said.
"It would be beside the existing T1 and T2, it would not be on the far side of the airfield.
"Why would it be beside the existing T1 and T2? Because that's where public transport is going to bring you to.
"Metro North: we've got a station ready to go - that's due to be an option for the public in about 2035/2037.
"I think it's pie in the sky to be talking about a third terminal over on the far side of the airport.
"We don't envisage that being a location for a third terminal".
'Net zero by 2050'
On the environment, Mr Jacobs said the DAA is working towards a net zero target.
"I think aviation needs to do more, and it is doing a lot," he said.
"Dublin Airport has a net zero target by 2050 that we're working towards.
"We've reduced our own energy consumption by 20% here at Dublin Airport and Cork Airport, and we want to do a lot more.
"We've introduced a 25% landing charge discount for airlines that have newer aircraft that have a lower Co2 output.
"We're investing in electric-only vehicles here in the airfield - so to pull aircraft - we're going to invest in electric-only buses to get you from the car parks to the airport," he added.
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