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Almost half a million more passengers used Irish airports in Quarter 2 (Q2) 2024 when compared with Q2 2023.
In Q2 2024, 11.2 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports, compared with 10.7 million passengers in the same period in 2023 and 10.5 million in Q2 2019.
Almost 19.5 million passengers passed through the main Irish airports in the first half of 2024, which was 1.1 million more passengers than in the first six months of 2023.
The number of flights to and from Irish airports in the first half of 2024 increased by 4,217 when compared with the same period in 2023 (134,789 vs 130,572).
Over 75,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in Q2 2024, with Dublin handling 84% of all flights (63,485), while Cork handled 7% of all flights (5,559).
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Malaga were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q2 2024. The top route for Cork and Shannon was London-Heathrow, while it was London-Luton for Knock, and Dublin for Kerry.
The number of passengers arriving to or departing from Ireland in June 2024 was over 40 times that of June 2020 (3,984,966 vs 94,100) and up by 6% when compared with June 2019 (3,984,966 versus 3,773,220).
Air freight handled by Irish airports in Q2 2024 was up 9% when compared with Q2 2023.
Figure 1 shows data on passenger numbers by quarter from Quarter 2 2019 to 2024 while Figure 2 shows data on passenger numbers for main Irish airports from June 2019 to June 2024. Passenger numbers are exceeding 2019 levels as shown in Figures 1 and 2.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (17 September 2024) published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 2 (Q2) 2024. Passenger numbers are received for the five main airports: Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry.
Commenting on the release, Damien Lenihan, Statistician, said: “The figures show an increase in international travel during April, May, and June (Q2) 2024. Passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up by 4% when compared with Q2 2023 and up by 7% compared with Q2 2019.
Almost half a million (483,145) more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q2 2024 when compared with Q2 2023, and this was 748,000 more passengers when compared with the same period in 2019.
In Q2 2024, 5.7 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was 227,430 more than the same period in 2023. It is interesting to note that the number of flights to and from Irish airports increased in Q2 2024 by 1,083 flights, when compared with the same period in 2023.
Looking at the data for the first half of 2024, 19.5 million passengers passed through Irish airports which was 1.1 million more passengers when compared with the same period in 2023, and 1.5 million more than the same six-month period in pre-pandemic 2019.
The amount of air freight handled by the main airports rose by 9% to 46,444 tonnes in Q2 2024 when compared with the same period in 2023.
Most Popular Routes and Destinations
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Malaga were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q2 2024. The top route for Cork and Shannon was London-Heathrow, while it was London-Luton for Knock, and the popular route for passengers using Kerry airport was Dublin.
In Q2 2024, almost nine out of every ten passengers (85%) 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 2024.”