Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2020

Interactive tables: Statbank

Link to release: Air and Sea Travel Statistics

For the period January-July 2020, 3,414,000 persons arrived in Ireland from overseas. This represented a decrease of 70.5% compared to the same period in 2019. January showed the highest number of arrivals, with 1,235,100 persons coming from overseas. In February, the number of arrivals declined marginally to 1,215,100 persons. However, in March, with the onset of the pandemic, the number of arrivals almost halved to 635,000. In April, under full lock-down, the number dropped precipitously to just 16,100 arrivals. In May, June and July, as travel restrictions were eased, the number of arrivals began a gradual recovery with 28,300, 57,100 and 227,300 arrivals reported in these months respectively.

Interactive tables: Statbank

Link to release: Air and Sea Travel Statistics

For the period January-July 2020, 3,448,700 persons departed Ireland on overseas travel. This represented a decrease of 70.5% compared to the same period in 2019. January was the busiest month for departures, with 1,239,800 persons travelling overseas. The figure for February departures was marginally lower at 1,203,300 persons. However, the number of departures fell by half to 602,100 in March and plunged to a low of 17,800 in April as the pandemic crisis intensified. The following months, as travel strictures loosened, there was a limited recovery in the number of departures with 36,300, 73,900 and 275,400 persons departing overseas in May, June and July respectively.

Interactive table: StatBank TEA01

Link to release: Vehicles Licensed for the First Time

In the first eight months of 2020, there were 71,873 new private cars licensed for the first time compared with 103,582 in the same period in 2019. This represents a fall of 30.6%.

Interactive table: StatBank TEA01

Link to release: Vehicles Licensed for the First Time

In the first eight months of 2020, there were 71,873 new private cars licensed for the first time compared with 103,582 in the same period in 2019. Of those, 13,757 (19.1%) were electric/hybrid electric compared with 12.5% (12,932) in the same period in 2019.

Link to release: Transport Bulletin

Source: Transport Infrastructure Ireland

This analysis utilises traffic counter data from selected sites to examine the changes that have occurred in traffic volumes since 01 March. Vehicles are counted when they pass over loops embedded in the road surface. The traffic counters distinguish between different vehicle classes. As road traffic patterns are subject to seasonality, data for each week is compared with the corresponding week in 2019.

The data shows that COVID-19 restrictions had a similar impact on traffic volumes in Dublin and in regional locations. In the weeks when restrictions were most stringent (from 29 March to 2 May) the volume of cars on the roads was more than 70% lower than in 2019.

As restrictions eased car traffic volumes increased, but not back up to 2019 levels. Data for the week beginning 26 July shows that car traffic volumes at regional sites and in Dublin remain almost one fifth (-18.2%) lower than for the same week in 2019.

Link to release: Transport Bulletin

Source: Transport Infrastructure Ireland

The decrease in traffic due to COVID-19 restrictions was not as pronounced for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) as for cars. In the first three weeks of March, leading up to the severest restrictions, HGV traffic volumes in Dublin and in regional locations were higher than in 2019, although HGV traffic volume was decreasing in those weeks. 

However, since 21 June, HGV traffic has been increasing steadily. The year-on-year comparisons of HGV volumes for the weeks commencing 12 and 19 April 2020 are both affected by the timing of Easter (21 April, 2019 and 12 April, 2020).

Link to release: Transport Bulletin

Source: National Transport Authority

The number of passenger journeys on public transport has dropped dramatically since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Data relating to bus and rail journeys is presented in Table 33.7 and Figure 33.5. This data shows that the combined number of journeys taken on these modes in the week commencing 12 April was over ten times lower than those taken in the first week of March. It is important to bear in mind that this week includes the Easter holiday.

The data indicates that rail was the mode of transport that was most severely hit since the onset of the crisis. In the week commencing 05 April the number of journeys undertaken was 97.2% lower than it was in the first week of March of this year. Rail data includes passenger journeys on Intercity and DART services.

Link to release: Transport Bulletin

Sources: Transport Infrastructure Ireland and National Transport Authority

Data on Luas journeys taken is presented in Table 33.8 and illustrated in Figure 33.6. The data indicates that the impact of COVID-19 on the Luas red and green lines, while very similar, has been slightly greater on the green line.

Link to release: Transport Bulletin

Source: Dublin City Council

Dublin City Council operate cycle counters at five locations across the city to aid traffic planning and gauge demand for cycling. The cycle counter automatically counts cyclists passing in both directions and relays information to Dublin City Council’s traffic control centre. Data from these counters is presented in table 7.

The data for peak hours shows a different pattern to that of the off-peak data. The volume of cyclists on weekdays between 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm decreased significantly when restrictions were most stringent. In April 2020 there was a drop of 75.6% in the volume of cyclists measured. Volumes are recovering slowly but data for August shows that volumes remain 54.4% lower than the same month last year.

At the start of the COVID-19 crisis the volume of cyclists during off-peak hours dropped compared to 2019. Data for the months of March and April 2020 showed reductions of 22.2% and 40.1% respectively. Since April, the volume of cyclists recorded outside peak hours has increased when compared with 2019; there were increases of 9.9% for the months of June and August. The only exception to this upward trend was July 2020, which was 4.1% lower than July 2019.

Link to release: Transport Bulletin

Air passenger data shows a dramatic fall in passengers handled by Irish airports due to COVID-19 restrictions. Data on airport passengers is presented in table 8 and illustrated in figure 9. The number of passengers travelling through Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Knock airports in the first eight months of 2020 is 71.2% lower than the same period last year.

The total number of passengers handled by those airports in August 2020 fell from 3,978,449 to 957,929, a drop of 75.9% when compared with the same period in 2019.  Data for Kerry airport was not yet available at the time of publication.

Clearances reflecting the duty paid amounts of oil removed from tax warehouses are shown for selected fuels in Figure 33.8. In terms of autodiesel, clearances were 55% lower in April 2020 when compared with April 2019, but have improved since then with clearances being 6% lower in July 2020 compared with July 2019.

A similar but slower trend is seen for unleaded petrol, with clearances improving from being 72% lower when comparing April 2020 with April 2019, to being 16% lower for July 2020 compared with July 2019.

In terms of home heating oils, kerosene and marked gas oil both saw significant increases when compared with the same time in 2019, with a price decrease likely being the main factor.