CCPC analysis reveals consumers benefitting from competition following CCPC’s decision to block daa’s purchase of former QuickPark site

June 19, 2025

Recent analysis by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) reveals the benefits of increased competition for car parking business at Dublin Airport, including more choice, greater supply, and lower prices for consumers. This follows the entry of a new competitor to the car park market at Dublin Airport.

In March 2025, the former QuickPark site was reopened by APCOA Parking Ireland, trading as Park2Travel, creating an additional 6,122 parking spaces at Dublin Airport. This was made possible by the CCPC’s block of daa’s attempted purchase of the former QuickPark site last year, which would have created a near-monopoly.

The deal was stopped due to findings that it would lead to higher prices, less choice and lower service quality for consumers.

CCPC analysis

The analysis was conducted one year after the publication of the full legal determination of the proposed sale. It included a review of car parking data for two of daa’s long-term carparks and Park2Travel, which are comparable in terms of offering and proximity to the airport.

It examined availability and prices between 20 May to 28 July 2025 for a selection of one-day, three-day and seven-day booking periods, covering both weekends and weekdays.

It showed that:

• Although the advertised shuttle times are broadly similar, Park2Travel is on average 21% cheaper than the Red Express carpark.
• Park2Travel is on average 3.6% cheaper than the Blue Holiday carpark which is 9 minutes further from the airport.
• On two thirds of the dates analysed, a single day of parking at the Blue Holiday car park was cheaper than Park2Travel (€12.99 v €14).
• A three-day booking was, in all scenarios, cheaper at Park2Travel than the Red Express car park (€42 v €45) which are broadly comparable in travel time to the airport (6 minutes v 5 minutes).
• In 75% of instances, a seven-day booking was cheaper by €1 at Park2Travel than the Blue Holiday carpark, and cheaper by €17 than the Red Express carpark.
• On one occasion when the Red Express carpark was sold out, Park2Travel had availability and offered a significantly lower daily rate than the Blue Holiday car park – 45% (€11 v €20).

However, on another occasion when the daa Red Express carpark was sold out, Blue Holiday car park was cheaper than Park2Travel by almost 6% for the same period – (€66 v €70.2).

Chairperson of the CCPC, Brian McHugh, said:

“Our initial assessment of the aftermath of the CCPC decision to block the daa/QuickPark deal shows clear signs of consumers benefiting from increased competition including more choice, greater supply, and lower prices at Dublin Airport in relation to parking this summer. Competition among businesses is vital to drive choice, better service and innovation.”

“If the privately owned QuickPark car park at Dublin Airport had been sold to daa, it would have given the daa approximately 90% of the market. Such a high level of market share is clearly detrimental to consumers.”

“Our decision to block the sale to daa was based on our analysis that the alternative would be see the site purchased by a competitor. Today, the entry of a new operator and the ability of consumers to compare prices and get the best deal shows that our decision was the correct one.”

Background

In March 2024, following a full investigation, the CCPC blocked the sale of the former Quickpark car park near Dublin Airport to daa due to concerns that the deal would lead to higher prices and lower service quality for consumers.

The investigation found that deal would substantially lessen competition in car parking serving Dublin Airport, as daa would own over 90% of the public car parking spaces if the purchase went ahead, resulting in potentially harmful consequences for consumers.

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