Dublin airport passengers rise 9%

The two Bank Holiday weekends in March contributed to a 9 per cent increase in passengers using Dublin Airport.

According to traffic data released today by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) more than 1.9 million people used the airport last month - equivalent to an extra 5,000 each day - compared with 2007.

There was a dramatic rise in the number of people travelling to and from the US in March with passenger numbers rising by 43 per cent to over 140,000 compared with the previous month.

According to the DAA, the number of people travelling to and from Europe rose 8 per cent to 930,000.

Flights to and from the UK also saw growth, rising to more than 780,000 passenger journeys or by over 6 per cent.

However, there was a slight fall in the number of domestic flights taken over the period, and these showed a fall of 4 per cent to 71,000 passenger journeys.

Passenger traffic increased by 8% during the first quarter of 2008, with just over 5 million passengers travelling through Dublin Airport.