Northern Ireland’s Airports – Statistics for Q2 and H1 2025

By Declan Hasson. Photos by Michael McElroy.

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority has recently published statistics for the second quarter of 2025 for Northern Ireland’s 3 airports: Belfast International, Belfast City and the City of Derry.

The three-month quarter (April to June) was a surprisingly disappointing one for Northern Ireland’s commercial aviation sector. Total passenger numbers are down -1.9% when compared to the same period last year and -1.2% down when compared to 2019 (Table 1). This marks a reversal in trend, which had seen growth at all three airports in the first quarter when set against levels of business achieved in both 2024 and 2019.

Number of Passengers Handled by Northern Ireland’s Airports For Q2 – 2019, 2024, and 2025 (Table 1)

After almost six years, hopes that passenger numbers would now be consistently outperforming 2019 have been somewhat dashed. Belfast City has experienced a significant drop in traffic. Its quarterly total of 597,188 is a solid 10% down on the 2019 tally of 663,717. It is also well down on last year, by over 18,000 passengers, with the bulk of the slippage coming in May and June.

In February 2024, Belfast City hosted six airlines offering 30 destinations. Its route network today is down to 23, of which 19 are domestic. Many of those routes are being operated by Aer Lingus Regional (Emerald Airlines) using ATR turboprops, offering fairly limited seating capacity. It may well be that route and frequency reduction at the airport is the core reason for the drop in passenger numbers in the second quarter. 

Attempts to grow non-domestic/holiday-related business have proved very difficult for the harbour airport, as Belfast International has consolidated its position as the dominant player in this sector in Northern Ireland in recent years. The ‘International’ consistently accounts for around 95% of all Northern Ireland’s holiday/leisure-related traffic, while the City airport handles just 4.5%.

On a more positive note, however, easyJet announced recently that it would start flying to Edinburgh in the late Autumn, a route currently operated by Aer Lingus Regional. easyJet is also in competition on a number of other routes with Aer Lingus Regional.

Although the International airport has handled more passengers than in 2019, (+1.7%), the main headline is its drop from 2024 by a full 2%. Once again, May and June were the biggest fallers. And once again, what has happened in quarter 2 has been a reversal in trend. 

A statement from Ryanair, one of the airport’s main operators, celebrating its six millionth passenger since 2016, was tempered with a warning.  Having operated 20 routes from Belfast International last year, Ryanair has been very critical of UK government policy on APD, which was increased by £2 per passenger in October 2024 and then increased further in April of this year. The airline’s comments should be noted as a further rise in this tax is expected in April next year and that may trigger a change in strategy as far as its operations in Northern Ireland are concerned. Ryanair is well known for chopping and changing its schedules, often with little warning. 

Last year, the International airport handled over 700,000 passengers in the key holiday month of July. That is a big target for July 2025. Vinci airports, the owner, will be anxiously awaiting the data, hoping that its £100 million investment programme is still paying off. 

The situation at the City of Derry is a lot more positive with passenger numbers well up for the second quarter of the year. The 54,162 total is a +12.6% improvement on 2019 and a +18.5% increase on last year. The change in fortunes at Derry began at the end of 2024 with easyJet launching services to Edinburgh and Liverpool. This month, the budget airline will start operating to Birmingham, making it the largest carrier at the airport. Derry has had a very small number of non-domestic flights this year apart from a few pilgrimages and ski holidays.

Growth at the airport will depend on increasing frequency on the existing domestic routes as there is currently limited scope to develop the sun holiday market. 

The position after the first half of 2025 (Table 2) reflects the near flatlining of the air travel business in Northern Ireland. With the Belfast gateways showing a -0.3% fall in traffic as compared to last year and a tiny +0.4% improvement when the City of Derry is added, there will be some concern within the industry that 2025 might turn out to be a year of disappointment. 

However, when surveying the data for the whole of the UK since 2019, Northern Ireland is certainly not alone. Many airports have had a challenging few years. Some have gone out of business.

But for Northern Ireland, the thorny issue of the duty (tax) on air travel is the most common complaint among the airlines operating here. Airports in the Republic have the competitive edge and the biggest of all, Dublin, is not a million miles away.

Number of Passengers Handled by Northern Ireland’s Airports For the first six months: 2019, 2024, and 2025 (Table 2)