Number passing though Irish airports rises by 1.6m

The number of people passing through Irish airports in the second quarter of the year rose by 1.6 million as air travel returned to pre-pandemic levels, new data showed.

The Central Statistics Office said 10.7 million passengers passed through Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry airports in April, May and June, compared with 9.1 million a year earlier. In the second quarter of 2019, the figure was 10.5 million, despite having a higher number of flights in that year.

In total, more than 18.3 million passengers used Irish airports in the first half of the year, an increase of 4.5 million year on year. Some 5.4 million passengers left from Ireland, an increase of more than 800,000 compared with 2019.

There were almost 74,000 flights to and from Irish airports in the second quarter of the year, up 7,500 compared to 2022, but 287 fewer than in 2019. The majority of the flights were in Dublin, which accounted for 83 per cent, with Cork handling 7 per cent.

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“Passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up by 3 per cent when compared with Q2 2019 and up by 18 per cent compared with Q2 2022,” said statistician Dr Nele van der Wielen. “Almost 804,000 more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q2 2023 when compared with Q2 2022, and this was 158,000 more passengers when compared with the same period in 2019.”

The most popular routes were Heathrow, Gatwick and Schipol for Dublin Airport, with Heathrow top for Cork and Shannon, and Stansted for Knock. Kerry airport’s main route was Dublin.

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“In Q2 2023, almost nine out of every 10 passengers (86 per cent) on international flights in the five main airports were travelling to or from Europe,” said Dr van der Wielen. “The two most popular countries of origin/destination were the United Kingdom and Spain. Outside of Europe, the United States of America was the most popular country of origin/destination in Q2 2023.”

The amount of air freight handled by the main airports increased by 7 per cent to 42,402 tonnes during the period.