More than 1.6 million more passengers used Irish airports in Q2 2023 when compared with Q2 2022.
In Q2 2023, 10.7 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports, compared with 9.1 million passengers in the same period in 2022 and 10.5 million in Q2 2019.
More than 18.3 million passengers passed through the main Irish airports in the first half of 2023, which was over 4.5 million more passengers than those using the airports in the first six months of 2022.
The number of flights to and from Irish airports in Q2 2023 increased by 7,580 when compared with the same period in 2022. However, there were 287 fewer flights when compared with the same period in 2019.
Almost 74,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in Q2 2023, with Dublin handling 83% of all flights (61,287), while Cork handled 7% of all flights (5,518).
London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick, and Amsterdam-Schiphol were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q2 2023. The top route for Cork and Shannon was London-Heathrow, while it was London-Stansted for Knock, and Dublin for Kerry.
The number of passengers arriving to or departing from Ireland in June 2023 was 40 times that of June 2020 (3,811,920 versus 94,100) and up slightly by 1% when compared with June 2019 (3,811,920 versus 3,773,220).
Air freight handled by Irish airports in Q2 2023 was up 7% when compared with Q2 2022.
Figure 1 shows data on passenger numbers by Quarter 2 2018 to 2023 while Figure 2 shows data on passenger numbers by April, May and June 2019 to 2023. Passenger numbers are exceeding 2019 levels as shown in Figure 2.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (15 September 2023) published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 2 (Q2) 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 April, May, and June (Q2) 2023. Passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up by 3% when compared with Q2 2019 and up by 18% compared with Q2 2022.
Almost 804,000 more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q2 2023 when compared with Q2 2022, and this was 158,000 more passengers when compared with the same period in 2019.
In Q2 2023, 5.4 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was 804,000 more than the same period in 2022, and 105,000 more people when compared with Q2 2019. It is interesting to note that the number of flights to and from Irish airports increased in Q2 2023 by 7,580 flights, when compared with the same period in 2022. However, there were 287 fewer flights when compared with the same period in 2019.
Almost 74,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in Q2 2023, with Dublin handling 83% of all flights (61,287), while Cork accounted for 7% of all flights (5,518).
London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick, and Amsterdam-Schiphol were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q2 2023. The top route for Cork and Shannon was London-Heathrow, while the busiest route for Knock was London-Stansted, and the popular route for passengers using Kerry airport was Dublin.
In Q2 2023, almost nine out of every ten passengers (86%) 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 Q2 2023.
Looking at the data for the first half of 2023, 18.4 million passengers passed through Irish airports which was 4.5 million more passengers when compared with the same period in 2022, and 450,000 more than the same six-month period in 2019.
The amount of air freight handled by the main airports increased by 7% to 42,402 tonnes in Q2 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.”