Arrivals into the State by sea or air dropped to 54,800 last month

Some 54,800 passengers arrived in the Republic by air or sea last month, down 49.2 per cent versus the previous month and 95.5 per cent lower than February 2020, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

At the same time 53,000 passengers departed the State on overseas routes, some 55.2 per cent fewer than in January.

On an annual basis, travel by air and sea was also sharply down. In the same month a year earlier, 1.2 million passengers arrived in the Republic, with a similar number departing.

Of those arriving into the State last month, 50,500, equivalent to 92.1 per cent of all passengers, came by air.

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Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and France were the most popular routing countries for travel during the month, according to the CSO.

Continental routes contributed most to the passenger traffic with some 31,600 passengers arriving this way and 27,800 passengers departing. By way of contrast, 13,200 passengers arrived on cross-channel routes – primarily from Britain – and 17,200 passengers departed.

Just 2,100 passengers arrived and 2,200 departed on transatlantic routes during the month.

For the first two months of the year, 162,800 overseas passengers arrived in the State, with 171,900 departing. This compares to almost 2.5 million arrivals and departures for the same period in 2020.