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Travel statistics confirm dramatic recovery after Covid lockdowns

Transatlantic routes show biggest surge in numbers but Britain is still the biggest source of incoming visitors

The strong recovery in air travel into Ireland continued in April. Photograph: Eric Luke

Mon May 30 2022 - 19:39

Data on air and sea travel show continued strong recovery from the Covid-19 lockdowns. New Central Statistics Office data reveals more than 1,476,000 arrived in Ireland from overseas last month.

The vast bulk of those − over 93 per cent – arrived by air with fewer than 100,000 coming by sea.

A slightly larger number − 1.49 million – departed form Ireland over the same period.

In the same month last year, just 69,400 passengers arrived in Ireland and the figure was even lower in 2020, just after the first Covid lockdown, when just 16,100 overseas passengers entered the State.

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However, overseas travel still remains significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels. In April 2019, over 1.7 million people arrived from overseas.

“The air and sea travel statistics continue to show a strong rebound in overseas travel as Covid-19 concerns recede,” said CSO statistician Gregg Patrick.

He said the recovery was spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most in relative terms. Thirty-seven transatlantic passengers arrived into the Republic last month for every one who came here last year. That compares to a 21 for one ration across all air travel.

The single biggest country of origin for travel into Ireland came from Britain, which accounted for close to 550,000 passengers, or 37 per cent of all travellers. Among the continental routes, Spanish routes were the busiest, with 197,600 passengers arriving on these routes, a more than 30-fold increase compared to April 2021.

The Air and Sea Travel statistics are a temporary measure for the CSO, which suspended its overseas travel series in March 2020 as it relied on CSO enumerators to quiz incoming passengers. The current numbers are based on data from airports and ports where passengers’ flights and sailings originate.

The CSO is trialling new data technology over the summer before resuming its overseas travel publications.

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