Record Passenger numbers (again) for February at Dublin
More than 1.8 million passengers passed through Dublin Airport in February, a 3% increase over the same month last year and a new record for the airport. Adverse weather at Dublin and other European airports as a result of Storm Emma prevented this number from being even higher.
Passenger volumes to and from continental Europe increased by 4%, with more than 890,000 passengers travelling to and from European destinations. UK traffic declined by 2% with almost 737,000 passengers travelling to and from the UK in February.
Passenger volumes to and from North America grew by 20%, as more than 152,000 passengers travelled on this sector in February. Other international traffic, principally on routes to and from the Middle East, increased by 11% with over 61,000 passengers travelling on these routes in February. More than 8,000 passengers took domestic flights to and from Dublin last month, an 18% increase compared to February 2017.
More than 3.8 million passengers have used Dublin Airport in the first two months of this year, which is a 5% increase on the first two months of last year.
New Routes
This was a good week for Dublin Airport with three new routes being announced. The most high profile is a new direct route to Beijing with Hainan Airlines beginning on 12th June. This complements the Dublin to Hong Kong route by Cathay Pacific that begins on 2nd June. Also this week Loganair announced the resumption of services between Dublin and Carlisle Airport while Ryanair announced a new Turkish route with direct flights to Dalaman commencing 24th June.
Traffic Movements
Movement figures published by the IAA this week backed up the numbers published by Dublin Airport reporting a total increase of 1.7% (73,088 movements) in February.
There was an increase of +0.6% in Ireland’s overflight traffic movements (flights, which do not land in Ireland) during February. North Atlantic Communications flights (Europe /North America Flights) saw an increase of +0.3%. In relation to international arrivals and departures, the commercial terminal traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports was up by +2.5%. Individually, the figures for the three State airports are:
- Commercial terminal flights at Dublin were up by +2.6% with an average of 516 daily commercial movements at Dublin.
- Commercial terminal flights at Cork were up by +4%, with an average of 46 commercial daily movements at Cork.
- Commercial terminal flights at Shannon were down by -1.2% with an average of 43 commercial daily movements at Shannon.
About the Author
Mark Dwyer Mark is an airline pilot flying the Boeing 737 for a major European airline. In addition he is also a Type Rating Instructor, Type Rating Examiner and Base Training Captain on the B737. Outside of commercial flying Mark enjoys flying light aircraft from the smallest 3 Axis microlights up to heavier singles. He is also an instructor and EASA Examiner on single engines and a UK CAA Examiner. He flies the Chipmunk for the Irish Historic Flight Foundation (IHFF). Mark became the Chairman of the National Microlight Association of Ireland (NMAI) in 2013 and has overseen a massive growth in the organisation. In this role he has worked at local and national levels. In 2015, Mark won ‘Upcoming Aviation Professional Award’ at the Aviation Industry Awards sponsored by the IAA. Mark launched this website back in 2002 while always managing the website, he has also been Editor and Deputy Editor of FlyingInIreland Magazine from 2005 to 2015.
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