Dublin Airport traffic back at pre-downturn levels

Air traffic at Dublin Airport rose by 11 per cent last month with an average of 585 flights arriving or departing every day, according to new figures from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

Overall, the total number of flights passing through Irish airspace was up 7.4 per cent in August compared to the same month a year earlier. There was an average of 1,776 daily flights, with the busiest day being August 20th with 1,875 flights in Irish airspace.

At the State’s biggest airport, there was an average of 585 flights passing through Dublin per day, up 10.9 per cent as against August 2014.

The IAA's chief executive Eamonn Brennan said the latest figures showed that traffic at Dublin Airport had returned to pre-downturn levels.

“Looking to the future, the IAA believes that the development of a parallel runway at Dublin is crucial to ensuring its continued growth and development as a secondary international hub. We are also very happy with Cork’s modest growth performance in August,” he said.

Air traffic at Cork Airport also returned to growth, albeit at a modest 1.3 per cent with an average of 64 commercial flights a day.

The number of flights passing through Shannon however fell sharply with an average of 56 commercial movements a day, down 21.1 per cent on the same period a year earlier. Despite the decline in flights at the airport, load factors - a measure of how full planes are - have typically been higher of late, giving an overall 7 per cent increase in terminal passengers at Shannon.

Ireland’s transatlantic traffic also saw strong growth in August. There was a 10.1 per cent rise in the number of flights that pass through Irish airspace but do not land here last month.

There were 31,773 so-called ‘en route traffic movements’ and 43,892 North Atlantic communications in August . This marks an increase of 5.2 per cent in communications versus the same month last year.

According to new figures from the DAA, which were published this week, a record 2.6 million passengers passed through Dublin Airport last month. This marks a 15 per cent on the same month a year earlier and marks the busiest August in the airport’s history.

The airport welcomed almost 2.3 million extra passengers in the first eight months of the year with a reported 16.8 million travelling through Dublin, up 15 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier.

Passenger volumes to and from continental Europe increased by 12 per cent last month and were up 18 per cent for numbers flying to UK destinations. Transatlantic traffic rose by 23 per cent, while the numbers flying to other international destinations, which includes flights to the Middle East and Africa, increased by 29 per cent.

Passenger numbers on domestic routes meanwhile increased 7 per cent with over 8,500 people taking flights within Ireland last month.