The number of passengers travelling through the five main Irish airports was up 8 per cent in the first quarter of 2024 compared with a year earlier and up 39 per cent when compared with the same period in 2020, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
Some 8.2 million passengers passed through the airports, which was over 600,000 more than in 2023.
The number of flights to and from Irish airports rose by more than 2,400 compared with the same period in 2023. Over 59,000 flights were handled by Ireland’s five main airports, with Dublin accounting for 85 per cent of all flights (50,248), while Cork handled 7 per cent (4,296).
London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick and Amsterdam-Schiphol were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin Airport.
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The top route for Cork and Shannon airports was London-Heathrow, for Knock airport it was London-Stansted, while the top route for Kerry was Dublin.
The number of passengers arriving to or departing from Ireland in March 2024 was over 2½ times that of March 2020 and up by 11 per cent when compared with March 2023.
Air freight handled by Irish airports was up by 15 per cent when compared with 2023.
CSO statistician Damien Lenihan said almost 300,000 more passengers travelled to Ireland when compared with the same quarter of 2023, and this was 1.1 million more passengers when compared with the same period in 2020.
Some 4.1 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was over 300,000 more than the same period in 2023, and almost 1.2 million more passengers when compared with 2020.
The amount of air freight handled by the main airports rose by 15 per cent to 42,769 tonnes in the first three months of 2024 when compared with the same period in 2023.
Almost nine out of every 10 passengers (88 per cent) on international flights in the five main airports were travelling to or from Europe. The two most popular countries of origin or destination were Britain and Spain. Outside of Europe, the US was the most popular country of origin or destination.
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