Press Statement

Preasráiteas

28 September 2020

Go to release: Air and Sea Travel Statistics August 2020

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (28 September 2020) released Air and Sea Travel Statistics August 2020.

Commenting on the release, Gregg Patrick, Statistician, said: 

“The Air and Sea Travel Statistics for August 2020 show a very substantial increase in overseas travel compared to the preceding month. In August, 362,600 overseas passengers arrived in Ireland, compared to 227,300 in July, an increase of 59.5%. In August, 328,200 overseas passengers departed Ireland, compared to 275,400 in July, an increase of 19.2%. However, overseas travel in August 2020 remained a small fraction of that in August 2019, when more than two million passengers arrived and departed.

The August 2020 statistics show that continental routes contributed most to the passenger traffic. Some 228,700 passengers arrived on continental routes and 186,000 passengers departed on continental routes. By way of contrast, 112,600 passengers arrived on cross-channel routes and 125,400 passengers departed on cross-channel routes. Just 11,600 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes and 7,800 passengers departed on these routes.

Apart from Great Britain (which accounts for almost all cross-channel routes), the most important routing countries for arrivals in August 2020 were Spain (33,600), Poland (31,700) and Italy (27,300). These three routing countries were also the most important for departures (after Great Britain), albeit in differing order; Poland (23,900), Italy (23,300) and Spain (22,800).

When we look at the year-to-date picture (January-August 2020), the statistics show 3.8 million overseas passengers travelled to and from Ireland. This compares to almost 14 million overseas passengers in the same period on 2019, a decrease of almost 73%. This illustrates the continuing and dramatic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international travel to and from Ireland”.

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