Airports report high passenger numbers over holiday period

Irish airports enjoyed "exceptional" passenger numbers over recent days, with Shannon recording its busiest August bank holiday weekend for five years.

Shannon and Cork were each expected to cater for more than 40,000 customers between Friday and Monday. Chief commercial officer Andrew Murphy said Shannon experienced a significant bounce on previous years.

"There has been a fantastic buzz at the airport throughout the summer but particularly the past week or so," he said. "Overall, both the inbound and outbound markets are continuing to grow and that's good news for tourism across the west and south, for sun-holiday makers from Ireland and, indeed, for the airport itself."

Management at Cork Airport partially credited a dreary domestic summer – which saw rainfall amounts double – for the boost in air traffic.

It comes on the back of news that Dublin Airport had the busiest month in its 75-year history this July. Some 2.5 million travellers passed through , culminating in an expected 16 per cent rise in numbers for the August bank holiday weekend compared with last year.