More than 22.7 million passengers travelled through the Republic's three biggest airports in 2011, a rise of 1 per cent on the previous year.
New figures from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) show an extra 100,000 passengers passed through its main airports last year.
The rise in passenger traffic at Dublin, Cork and Shannon was largely due to an increase in people taking international flights. Domestic traffic contracted further last year with passenger numbers falling from a peak of 1.5 million in 2005 to 200,000 in 2011.
Overall, passenger traffic at Dublin airport increased by 2 per cent to 18.8 million passengers last year. However, passenger numbers at Cork airport declined by 3 per cent to 2.4 million while numbers at Shannon were down by 7 per cent to 1.6 million.
Last year’s decline in internal domestic travel was offset by international passenger traffic, which includes both Irish-based people travelling abroad and foreign residents coming to Ireland.
Excluding domestic traffic, overall passenger numbers on international routes were up 2 per cent in 2011.
Passenger numbers on international flights at Dublin increased by 3 per cent during the year.
Cork airport was most affected by the decline in domestic traffic, with the withdrawal of the Cork to Dublin service having a serious impact on domestic passenger numbers.
Excluding domestic traffic, passenger numbers at Cork increased by 3 per cent last year. Passenger numbers at Shannon airport declined by 6 per cent when domestic travel was not included in the figures.
The authority attributed the fall in domestic air travel was attributed to the improved Irish road network and the ending of a number of Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes.
The authority's director of strategy Vincent Harrison said there were positive signals for the year ahead with new international routes opening at both Dublin and Cork airports and extra capacity on existing routes across the three airports.
“Incoming visitors were the strongest performer last year. Our detailed passenger survey data shows that the weakest segment of the international market was travel by Irish-resident foreign nationals, which declined significantly last year,” he said.
Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said last week he is to engage with unions and potential investors before making a final decision on the future of Cork and Shannon airports.
Mr Varadkar had initially signalled a decision would be made early this year, following a recommendation to Cabinet. However, the Minister has now said he will bring a "memo for information" before Government shortly with a further "memo for decision" to be presented to Cabinet later this year. This follows a report received last month from consultants Booz on the various options for the airports.
The Irish Times last month revealed that Booz recommended that Shannon be separated from the Dublin Airport Authority and placed into a separate corporate structure with a remit to expand its activities. Booz also concluded that debts associated with Cork meant it should remain with the DAA for the immediate future, although with greater autonomy.
