Passenger numbers at Dublin and Cork airports continue to rise

Almost 3 million passengers passed through Dublin Airport last month, airport authority DAA said, an 11 per cent increase year on year.

Meanwhile, Cork Airport also saw its passenger figures rise, up 12 per cent to 260,000.

The airport authority said about 200,000 passengers used Dublin for transfers or transit, bringing the total number to 800,000 in the four peak summer travel months of June to September. A total of 12 million passengers used Dublin Airport for travel in that period.

The airport’s busiest day last month was September 24th, with rugby fans bumping up the figures, while London Heathrow was the most popular destination.

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Improvements to security screening processes has cut the wait time for 90 per cent of passengers to less than 20 minutes, DAA said.

“Our target at the start of the summer was to get 90 per cent of departing passengers at Dublin Airport safely through security in less than 20 minutes,” said DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs.

“We want to build on this very good progress and have plans already under way to improve standards even more for passengers in the months and years ahead. Central to Dublin Airport’s ability to meet the demands of passengers and our airline partners in the years ahead will be permission to grow Dublin Airport further to meet Ireland’s demand for international travel.”

He said DAA would shortly submit an application to Fingal County Council to grow beyond the current 32 million cap.

“Until planning permission to grow beyond 32 million is granted, DAA will continue to manage the passenger capacity through the terminals at Dublin Airport to ensure that current planning restrictions are not breached,” he said.

It was also a busy month for Cork Airport, with strong demand on routes to Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands and Italy. Security screening at the airport currently gets 99.9 per cent of passengers cleared in 20 minutes or less.

“DAA continues to see good growth opportunities for Cork Airport, which has no restrictions, with scope for Ireland’s second most popular airport to grow to 5 million passengers per annum in the coming years and in ARI, our duty-free retail business, and DAAI, our international airport operations business,” Mr Jacobs said.