The number of air passengers in Ireland increased year on year in the third quarter of 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Details
According to a statement published on CSO.ie, the number of passengers that used Ireland's main airports (Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry) in the third quarter of this year increased by close three times year on year to 6.9 million, with 10.4 million passengers passing through Ireland's five main airports, but this figure was 10% less than the figure recorded for the same period in pre-COVID-19 pandemic 2019.
Close to 24.3 million passengers passed through Ireland's main airports during the first nine months of this year, which was a year on year of over five-fold, while the number of flights to and from Irish airports in the third quarter of this year increased by over 36,000 year on year, but was 13% lower than the figure recorded for the same period in 2019, according to the CSO, which noted that a little over 68,700 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports during the third quarter of this year, 84%, or 57,611, of which were handled by Dublin Airport and 7%, or 5,131, of which were handled by Cork Airport.
The most popular routes for passengers passing through Dublin Airport during the third quarter of this year were Heathrow, Gatwick and Schiphol, while Heathrow was the most popular route for Cork, Stansted was the most popular route for Knock and Shannon, and Luton was the most popular route for Kerry airport, according to the CSO, which also noted that air freight handled by Irish airports increased by 3% year on year during the third quarter of this year.
Statement By Statistician
The statement published on CSO.ie quoted statistician in the agriculture, transport & tourism division Dr Nele van der Wielen as saying, "The figures show an increase in international travel during Q3 2022. However, data shows that passengers travelling to and from Ireland were still down by 10% compared with Q3 2019.
"Almost 3.5 million more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q3 2022 when compared with Q3 2021, but this is 0.6 million fewer passengers when compared with the same period in 2019.
"In Q3 2022, 5.2 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was 3.5 million more than the same period in 2021, but still fewer by 0.6 million when compared with Q3 2019.
"In the first nine months of 2022, 24.3 million passengers passed through Irish airports, which was 19.7 million more passengers when compared with the same period in 2021 but 5.2 million fewer than the same period in 2019."
