Air and sea travel to Ireland in June rebounds but still below pre-pandemic levels

More than 1.7 million passengers arrived in Ireland from overseas in June – an 11-fold increase – as the tourism sector continued its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figure compares with just 160,000 arrivals in June last year when the country was still subjected to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Some 1.6 million passengers arrived by air last month and 97,500 by sea. More arrivals came from Britain (530,600) than from any other country.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) statistician Gregg Patrick said the figures represented “a dramatic recovery” compared with June 2021, and an “even more dramatic recovery” compared with June 2020, when just 57,100 overseas passengers arrived here.

However, overseas arrivals remain significantly lower (12 per cent) than pre-pandemic June 2019, when just more than 1.9 million overseas arrived here.

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“The recovery is seen in both modes of travel [air and sea], although the recovery in air travel is most dramatic with a 12-fold increase compared with June 2021,” Mr Patrick said.

“The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most in relative terms with 19 transatlantic passengers arriving in June 2022 for every one in June 2021,” he said.

The CSO numbers show that 208,500 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes in June, which was up from 11,000 for the same month of 2021 but below the pre-pandemic June 2019 level of 250,500.

“Among the continental routes, Spanish routes were the busiest, with 250,800 passengers arriving on these routes, a more than 17-fold increase compared with June 2021.

“However, in overall terms, Britain remained the most important departure country for overseas travellers to Ireland, with 530,600 passengers arriving on air and sea routes from Britain, compared with just 57,700 in June 2021.”

According to the CSO, some 1.83 million people departed the Republic by air and sea in June. This compared with 199,100 in the same month of 2021 and 73,900 for the same month in 2020. In June 2019, some 1.93 million departed from the country.