A record number of people travelled through Ireland’s main airports – on either inbound or outbound flights – last year, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
Just under 39.2 million people used Irish airports in 2023 – the highest annual number since the CSO began recording the flow back in 2013. The figure was 6.7 million – or 20% – higher than 2022. The total has also fully eclipsed pre-Covid 2019 levels.
The CSO figures cover Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Shannon and Ireland West (Knock) airports.
Commenting on the data, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Agriculture, Transport & Tourism Division of the CSO, said: “The figures show a significant increase in international travel during 2023. In fact, 2023 was a record year in terms of the number of passengers using Irish airports since the series began 10 years ago, with 39.2 million people travelling through at least one of the five main airports in the country.
“Data shows that passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up by one-fifth (20%) compared with 2022.
“Almost 3.3 million more passengers travelled to Ireland in 2023 when compared with 2022, and this was almost 600,000 more when compared with the same period in 2019.
“In 2023, 19.6 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was 3.4 million more than the same period in 2022, and half a million more passengers when compared with 2019.
“In October, November, and December (Q4) 2023, 9.0 million passengers passed through Irish airports, which was 781,000 more passengers when compared with the same period in 2022 and 479,000 more than the same period in 2019.”
Mr Lenihan said: “Almost 274,000 flights were handled by Ireland’s five main airports in 2023, with Dublin handling 84% of all flights (229,756), while Cork accounted for 7% of all flights (19,777). The number of flights in 2023 increased by 16% when compared with 2022.
London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick, and Amsterdam-Schiphol were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in 2023 The top route for Cork and Shannon airports was London-Heathrow, for Knock airport it was London-Stansted, and for Kerry airport it was Dublin.”
