Number of passengers arriving in Ireland shoots above pre-Covid levels

The number of passengers arriving in Ireland has risen above pre-Covid levels as the recovery in international travel continued into January.

More than 1.25 million people arrived here by air and sea last month, an increase of 114.4 per cent on January 2022 when some public health restrictions remained in place, the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) latest air and sea travel statistics have revealed. The January total is also 1.4 per cent ahead of pre-Covid January 2020 when some 1.23 million arrived in the country from abroad.

Gregg Patrick, a CSO statistician, said that while the recovery was observed in both air and sea routes, it was “most pronounced” in air travel with 1.2 million people arriving at Irish airports in January, an increase 115.9 per cent from January 2022.

He said: “The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most (+126.4 per cent) in relative terms, increasing from 40,200 in January 2022 to 91,100 in January 2023. Among the continental routes, Spanish routes remain the busiest, with 153,100 passengers arriving on these routes in January 2023, a 72.2 per cent increase compared with January 2022.”

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However, Britain remains the “most important” departure point for overseas travel to Ireland, with 447,000 passengers arriving on air and sea routes from Great Britain in January 2023, compared to just 164,700 in January 2022.

Despite the substantial recovery in air and sea travel last year, arrival volumes in 2022 were still a significant 14.3 per cent lower than pre-pandemic 2019, CSO figures published in January indicated.

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But the aviation industry is forecasting 2023 to be a strong year for air travel despite the lingering cost of living crisis.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said recently that the sector, which is set to benefit from the reopening of the Chinese economy this year, will continue to rebound throughout 2023.

Former Aer Lingus chief executive Willie Walsh, now director general of the trade association, said the sector will carry the momentum from last year into 2023.

Meanwhile the hotels sector has warned in recent weeks of a decline in forward bookings this year from overseas against the backdrop of lingering inflation.

A survey of hotel and guest house owners by the Irish Hotels Federation late last year indicated that 60 per cent of its members had experienced a decline in bookings from Britain, 47 per cent from Northern Ireland, and 38 per cent indicating a decline in forward bookings by European tourists.