Over 3.1 million passengers travelled to and from Ireland’s two busiest airports in April, according to daa, the operator of Dublin and Cork airports. The number of passengers travelling through Dublin Airport in April was up marginally versus the same month last year, at just 1%. At Cork Airport, passenger traffic was marginally down by 2% compared to April 2023.
Dublin Airport will welcome around 423,000 passengers over the coming May bank holiday weekend, according to the airport’s operator daa. The four-day period between Friday and Monday will see around 220,000 passengers departing from Dublin Airport, with 203,000 passengers arriving. The expected numbers are on a par with 2019 levels. Passengers departing from Dublin Airport over the coming weekend are advised to arrive at their terminal two hours in advance of a short-haul flight and three hours before a long-haul flight. Demand for car parking in Dublin Airport’s car parks is extremely high for the coming weekend with all of our car parks sold out. Anyone without an existing booking is encouraged to travel to the airport via public transport or taxi or to be dropped off at the airport.
Commenting on the April passenger traffic statistics, daa CEO, Kenny Jacobs said, “April was the first full month of the 2024 summer schedule and it is encouraging to see that passenger traffic was broadly in line with April last year. The month got off to a strong start as it coincided with the second week of the Easter school holidays.”
“A modest month of flat growth at Dublin Airport should come as no surprise, given that we are complying with the 32 million terminals cap. The planning cap stymies any growth prospects at Dublin Airport. This means that our business and leisure passengers won’t be able to connect to new destinations where we know there is proven demand for routes to destinations like Brazil, South Africa, or the Far East over the next couple of years until Dublin Airport is allowed to grow again. Our airline customers won’t have an opportunity to grow, inbound tourism will suffer, and foreign direct investment and jobs will be lost.”
“At Cork Airport, the team is gearing up for their busiest summer in many years, with an estimated 3 million passengers expected to fly to and from the country’s second-busiest airport. Inbound tourism from the UK and Continental Europe remains strong, with good load factors on routes from UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Cork Airport has three new routes to Brussels Charleroi, Rhodes, and Zadar this summer, with TUI announcing a new service to Corfu from May next year.”
