In the first quarter of 2023, 7.6 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports, up 62% compared with 2022 and up 29% when compared with the same period in 2020.
Almost 3 million more passengers used Irish airports in Q1 2023 compared with Q1 2022.
Number of flights to and from Irish airports in Q1 2023 increased by more than 15,700 compared to the same period in 2022.
Almost 57,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in the first quarter of 2023, with Dublin handling 85% of all flights (48,515), while Cork handled 7% of all flights (3,707).
London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick and Amsterdam-Schiphol were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in the first quarter of 2023. 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 London-Luton.
The number of passengers arriving to or departing from Ireland in March 2023 was almost two and half times that of March 2020 and up by 2% when compared with March 2019.
Air freight handled by Irish airports in Q1 2023 was down by 2% compared with Q1 2022.
Figure 1 shows data on passenger numbers by Quarter 1 2018 to 2023 while Figure 2 shows data on passenger numbers by January, February and March 2019 to 2023. Passenger numbers are exceeding 2019 levels as shown in Figure 2.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (16 June 2023) published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 1 2023. Passenger numbers are received for the five main airports: Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry.
Commenting on the release, Dr Nele van der Wielen, Statistician, said: “The figures show an increase in international travel during Q1 2023. Passengers travelling to and from Ireland are up 29% compared with Q1 2020 and up by 3% compared with same period in 2019.
Over 1.4 million more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q1 2023 when compared with Q1 2022 and there were over 95,000 more passengers when compared with the same period in 2019.
In Q1 2023, almost 3.8 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was almost 1.5 million more than the same period in 2022, and over 91,000 more passengers when compared with Q1 2019.
The amount of air freight handled by the main airports decreased by 2% to 37,114 tonnes in the first three months of 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.
In the first quarter of 2023, almost nine out of every ten passengers (88%) on international flights in the five main airports were travelling to or from Europe. The two most popular countries of origin/destination were the United Kingdom and Spain. Outside of Europe, the United States of America was the most popular country of origin/destination in Q1 of 2023."