Northern Ireland’s Airports – Statistics for Q1 (2024)

By Declan Hasson

The CAA has recently published statistics for Quarter 1 (2024) for Northern Ireland’s 3 airports, Belfast International, Belfast City and City of Derry.

The opening quarter of 2024 has seen passenger traffic increase strongly over 2023 at Northern Ireland’s main airports – Belfast International and Belfast City.

Almost 27% more passengers (393,145) were handled at the Belfast gateways compared to the same three months last year. However, compared to the all-important “benchmark” year 2019, the combined tally has come up just short of the pre-pandemic year.

Individually, the International was just -1.1% shy of 2019, whereas the City airport exceeded the 2019 total by +1.1%. Conversely, City of Derry airport has seen a decline over the years, with traffic down – 15.1% on 2023 and a -37.1% drop on 2019 levels.

In the scheme of things, however, City of Derry’s passenger throughput represents just 1.5% of Northern Ireland’s total. Its impact on the general recovery is quite negligible. Traffic through the Belfast airports is confidently predicted to exceed the 2019 levels in the remaining three quarters of the year.

VINCI, the owner of Belfast International, has recently reported on its Q1 performance, attributing its strong bounce back to increased GB and European connectivity. Seven new routes for this year, combined with increased frequencies on a range of destinations, are expected to drive further growth. Jet 2, easyJet and Ryanair handle the bulk of holiday traffic through the airport. TUI operates fewer routes, but significantly, it is the only airline flying to the USA. Holiday flights to Orlando are on this year’s summer programme, while Cancun, Mexico is scheduled to begin in June 2025.

Tunisia, Cyprus and Malta are among the new summer 2024 routes, while Turin and Salzburg are to be part of the airport’s winter programme.

VINCI is currently spending £100m on major improvement works at the airport which includes a brand new security building, scheduled to be operational this summer. The international airport has had to endure much criticism in recent years over its security processing system which generated much unwelcome adverse publicity.

VINCI will be hoping that its long overdue investment at Northern Ireland’s principle 24/7 gateway will underpin further strong growth in the months and years ahead.

At Belfast City, something of a psychological milestone has now been reached with the airport having exceeded 2019 levels of business. The airport currently offers 28 destinations throughout the UK and Europe with its seven airline partners Aer Lingus Regional, easyJet, British Airways, KLM, Loganair, Lufthansa and TUI.

An interesting addition to operations at the City airport is a “cruise connection” service provided by Royal Caribbean to Bologna and Barcelona.

EasyJet continues to expand at the City airport, launching a further two sun destinations this season to Alicante and Palma, bringing the total number of European routes out of Belfast City to eight.

The recent award of being the “UK’s most punctual airport” for 2023 has enhanced the downtown facility’s reputation – an important accolade as the City airport handles a substantial number of business related flights.

City of Derry airport continues to have its fair share of setbacks, with a last minute announcement that holiday flights to Majorca were being scrapped. It now has only the one sun destination on offer this year, namely Portugal.

All Northern Ireland’s airports complain that they continue to operate at a commercial disadvantage to their counterparts in the Republic of Ireland. Airport Passenger Duty (APD) is repeatedly cited as an aggravating factor when it comes to competing for passengers. The fact that Dublin and Knock airports recovered more quickly from the lockdown years than Northern Ireland’s airports, goes somewhat towards supporting that claim.

Number of Passengers handled by Northern Ireland’s Airports For  Q1 2019, 2023 and 2024