Dublin Airport monthly passenger figures fall for first time since 2014

The number of passengers who used Dublin Airport declined in November compared to the same month last year, the first monthly drop seen since March 2014.

More than 2.2 million passengers travelled through the State’s largest airport last month, a 1 per cent fall compared to November 2018.

Dublin Airport operator DAA said the fall was seen on all route sectors except Europe, which recorded a 2 per cent rise with almost 1.1 million passengers travelling to and from European destinations during the month.

The decline was attributed to airlines withdrawing their services or reducing capacity on existing routes during the typically quieter winter months.

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Specifically, Norwegian Air ended its transatlantic services from the facility on the back of Boeing’s delay in delivering new 737 Max aircraft. Additionally, Wow Air collapsed, ending its flights from Dublin, Cathay Pacific curtailed its services due to unrest in Hong Kong and Hainan scaled back its Dublin to Beijing service.

UK traffic in the period was 2 per cent lower in the month with almost 833,000 passengers travelling to and from UK destinations. Transatlantic traffic to and from North America declined by 4 per cent, with almost 263,000 passengers travelling in the month. Other destinations, including flights to the Middle East and Africa, saw traffic fall 11 per cent.

Domestic traffic

Domestic traffic was down significantly, falling by 25 per cent, with almost 7,300 passengers travelling to and from either Kerry or Donegal airports.

Despite the November slowdown, traffic at Dublin Airport so far this year has risen 5 per cent to 30.6 million passengers. The number of passengers using the facility as a hub to connect to other destinations increased by 5 per cent, with almost 1.8 million passengers tranferring at the airport between January and November.