Northern Ireland’s Airports – Statistics for Q3 and for the First Nine Months

By Declan Hasson

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

Overall, the third quarter of 2025 has been another disappointing three-month period at Northern Ireland’s principal gateways. Following an equally disappointing second quarter, which reported a 2.2% downturn in traffic at the Belfast airports, the situation has deteriorated further in Q3, with a combined fall of 2.9% when compared to last year. As Table 1 shows, the ‘International’ has seen a 2.5% fall in Q3. However,  the situation at the Harbour airport is more concerning, with throughput down 4.3% on 2024.

In terms of actual numbers, the Belfast gateways have handled almost 80,000 fewer passengers than in the third quarter of 2024. Belfast City is also well down on its 2019 target, with a 12.3% negative variance. Following a 10% drop in the second quarter, there will be some “head scratching” at the downtown facility at these disappointing results. 

The depressing figures are feeding into the nine-month performance table (Table 2) with the Belfast airports now 1.3% behind 2024, with just three months remaining in 2025. The International is a full 1% behind, while the City airport is 2.3% adrift.

The situation at the City of Derry is quite the opposite, up 9.3% compared to 2019 and up 16.4% against last year’s Q3. Its nine-month performance is more impressive, up 10.7% on 2019 and a very impressive 32.5% improvement on last year, albeit from quite a low base.

In summary, Northern Ireland’s commercial aviation sector is not growing. After nine months, it is 0.7% behind 2024. Admittedly, it has managed to just about achieve 2019’s level of business, but growth remains largely elusive.

With Portrush hosting this year’s Open Golf Championship in July, tourism authorities in Northern Ireland were expecting a big boost in hotel and general accommodation bookings. Surprisingly, bookings actually fell in July this year when compared to 2024.

City of Derry airport, located just 34 miles from the tournament, reported: “140 charter movements over the week of the event and increased scheduled services from Ryanair, easyJet and Loganair.” Passenger numbers were up 9.2% in July. However, there was no boost for the Belfast airports as they reported a combined fall of 2% for what is normally the key summer month.

For the first three quarters of 2025, the stark reality is that the two Belfast airports are down approximately 91,000 passengers. However, the City of Derry is up by almost 41,000 passengers.

The one common denominator across Northern Ireland’s three airports is that easyJet has a significant presence in all three facilities. Winter operations have now begun with little change in airline plans compared to last winter. Ryanair will once again operate thirteen routes with two aircraft based at the ‘International’. Jet2 is offering a similar programme to what it operated last winter. The situation at the Harbour airport is also broadly in line with what it operated last year, with Aer Lingus Regional once again flying to ten popular UK destinations, with some increases in frequency on just two of its routes.

With no significant changes to the number of seats on offer this winter at Northern Ireland’s three airports, there is a real challenge ahead for the two Belfast airports to achieve the levels of business achieved last year.

Conversely, the City of Derry is heading for a very positive twelve months, thanks to easyJet, the airport’s largest operator. The introduction of a twice-weekly service to Birmingham this winter is a further boost to the north-west’s airport’s recent good fortune.

The biggest aviation news in recent months in Northern Ireland has been the launch of Belfast City Airport’s Draft Master Plan 2040, which it envisages handling 7 million passengers within the 15-year timeline. The Master Plan envisages an extension to the terminal building, a hotel, extra aircraft parking stands and a connection to the Sydenham railway halt nearby. No mention of extending the airport’s operational hours or the thorny issue of an extension to the airport’s single runway. Airport Master Plans have a reputation for being notoriously ambitious. The projections are based upon a forecast that airports throughout Ireland will be handling around 90 million passengers by 2040, which in itself appears ambitious. 

Fifteen years ago, the Harbour airport handled 2.7 million passengers. Last year, the airport handled 2.4 million. It will take a very considerable reversal in fortune for Belfast City to get to the dizzy heights of handling 7 million passengers by 2040. It will have to be largely at the expense of its much bigger neighbour, barely twenty miles away, which seems unlikely. The International airport has seen its throughput increase from 4 million in 2010 to 6.7 million last year. It is the only airport in Northern Ireland that has recorded substantial growth in that fifteen-year period. It has clear advantages over the other two airports in this corner of Ireland and is not likely to start losing significant market share in the short or medium term. The City airport’s ambitions for the medium term might be interpreted by some as being at the extreme end of expectations. As ever in the world of commercial aviation, only time will tell.

Photos are courtesy of Michael McElroy, David McAllister, Adam Macc and Scott Mackey.