The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has recently published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 3 (Q3-2023) for Northern Ireland’s three airports: Belfast International, Belfast City and City of Derry.
The third quarter of 2023 has seen a solid increase in passenger traffic through Northern Ireland’s main airports, Belfast International and Belfast City.
Compared to the same period in 2022, the Belfast gateways have seen traffic increase by almost 20% (2,389,968 as against 1,996,457), as detailed in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of Passengers handled by N.I. Airports, Quarter 3 (2019 – 2023)
| Airport | 2019 (July –September) | 2020 (July –September) | 2021 (July –September) | 2022 (July –September) | 2023 (July –September) | % Change 2022 – 2023 |
| Belfast International | 1,855,793 | 492,543 | 930,863 | 1,491,971 | 1,804,999 | +21% |
| Belfast City | 716,080 | 90,230 | 323,125 | 504,486 | 584,969 | +16% |
| City of Derry | 55,918 | 21,353 | 27,679 | 53,691 | 48,327 | -10% |
| Totals | 2,627,791 | 604,126 | 1,281,667 | 2,050,148 | 2,438,295 | +19% |
However, Northern Ireland’s third airport, City of Derry, saw a 10% decrease in passenger throughput falling from 53,691 in 2022 to 48,327 in 2023.
Compared to the same quarter in 2019, the year before the pandemic, Northern Ireland’s airports are performing less favourably than their counterparts in the republic, with 2,438,295 passengers handled by the North’s airports compared to 2,627,791 for the same airports in 2019, a fall of over 7%.
However, despite not having returned to pre-Covid levels of business, the Belfast airports are now on the road to recovery.
Year-to-date information, (10 months to 31-10-23) as shown on Table 2, suggests strong momentum with Belfast International Airport up 21% on 2022 (an increase of 868,487 passengers handled).
Belfast City is also experiencing strong growth, up 32% on 2022 (an increase of 418,521 for the ten month period).
City of Derry airport has been less fortunate, with year-to-date figures showing a 3% decline on the previous year (a decrease of 4,304 passengers).
The ten-month period to the end of October shows that Northern Ireland’s airports still have some way to go to achieve the 2019 levels of business. Overall, Belfast International, Belfast City and City of Derry airports were 11% behind as at 31st October – 815,659 passengers.
Data for the full 2023 year has yet to be made available by the CAA, but it is likely to show both Belfast Airports surging ahead of 2022, while City of Derry may struggle to match 2022 levels of business.
The recent announcement by Ryanair that it is to launch twice weekly services from Derry to Birmingham from April may compensate somewhat for the recent loss of the Liverpool route, which had been operated by Loganair.
Table 2: Number of Passengers handled by N.I. Airports in the 10 months to 31st October for the Years 2019, 2022 and 2023
| Airport | 2019 (January-October) | 2022 (January-October) | 2023 (January-October) | % Change 2019 – 2023 | % Change 2022 – 2023 |
| Belfast International | 5,475,329 | 4,203,511 | 5,071,998 | -7% | +21% |
| Belfast City | 2,117,055 | 1,318,712 | 1,737,232 | -18% | +32% |
| City of Derry | 167,353 | 139,151 | 134,847 | -19% | -3% |
| Totals | 7,759,737 | 5,661,374 | 6,944,078 | -11% | +23% |
By Declan Hasson
