Press Statement

Preasráiteas

14 April 2021

Go to release: Aviation Statistics Quarter 4 and Year 2020

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (14 April 2021) published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 4 and Year 2020.

Commenting on the release, Noreen Dorgan, Assistant Principal, said: “The figures show a significant decline in international travel during 2020. Almost 30 million (29,760,088) fewer passengers used Irish airports in 2020 compared with 2019. This represents a fall of 78.2%. The number of flights fell significantly last year, with just under two-thirds (65.2%) fewer flights taken when compared to 2019, from 273,558 flights in 2019 to 95,309 in 2020. In Quarter 4 of 2020, almost 372,000 passengers travelled to Ireland and 387,000 passengers departed from Ireland. These numbers represent a fall of 91.3% (3.9 million) and 90.9% (3.9 million) respectively, when compared to the same period in 2019.

The amount of air freight handled by the main airports also fell by 11.8% to 138,787 tonnes in 2020 when compared with the same period in 2019.”

Today’s figures also show a breakdown by route. In 2020, nine out of every ten passengers (89.8%) on international flights were travelling to or from Europe. Within Europe, the United Kingdom and Spain were the most popular routes.

Outside of Europe the most popular routes were to or from the United States of America.

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