Northern Ireland’s Airports – Statistics for Q4 and Full Year 2025

Article by Delan Hasson

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has recently published statistics for the final quarter of 2025 for Northern Ireland’s 3 airports: Belfast International, Belfast City and the City of Derry. The 2025 fourth quarter data for total passenger traffic handled at Northern Ireland’s three airports is certainly positive when compared to 2019, but disappointing when set against 2024.

All three airports are up against 2019 in Q4, collectively by 14%, but the overall position against the previous year tells a different story. The International, in the middle of a £100 million upgrade, saw a drop in traffic of 23,500 as against 2024. With the City airport up 13,744, the combined negative figure of 9,756 (minus -0.5%) is the headline story.

Although the City of Derry airport reported a +6.3% growth, there will be disappointment at the level of throughput in the months of November and December. Data for that period shows that, following a strong October, the momentum fizzled out with the final two months of the year ending down -2.1%. Overall, Northern Ireland passenger traffic is down -0.3% on 2024 for the last three months of the year.

Table 1: Number of Passengers Handled by Northern Ireland’s Airports In Q4 2019, 2024 & 2025

Looking at the figures for the full year, it is Belfast City that has yet to fully recover from the pre-pandemic days of 2019, when the downtown facility handled around 2,455,000 passengers. At 2,364,000 for 2025, down -3.7% on the 2019 figure, the struggle continues. It may take some time for the airport to reach its all time record of 2,700,000, which it achieved in 2010.

Although the International airport has reported a solid +6.4% increase over 2019, it has experienced less good fortune when compared to 2024. Like the Harbour airport, it has seen traffic decline by -1.1%. Conversely, the City of Derry airport figures for the year are positive but not enough to prevent the overall Northern Ireland figure coming in below 2024 by -0.6%.

The fact that fewer people flew to and from Northern Ireland’s airports in 2025 compared to the previous year is somewhat surprising, considering that the Northern Ireland economy performed well in 2025. Belfast International’s owners, Vinci, say it: “remains committed to its ongoing £100 million investment programme, which has already delivered a new terminal extension, an upgraded security hall and an enhanced Duty Free experience”.

The airport had for many years been at the receiving end of much adverse criticism over security delays. The big upgrade to the security hall in recent times has done much to repair the negative reputation that the airport had earned. The constant stream of bad publicity would have done the airport no favours. It has finally dealt with the problem and can now look to a brighter future. Indeed, recent users of the ‘International’ have been more than complimentary about the total airport experience.

The City airport may well see some meaningful growth in 2026, following the announcement that Aer Lingus Regional will be offering 750,000 seats for the summer season – a 25% increase on last year. Capacity and frequency increases on the Birmingham, Southampton, Edinburgh, Manchester and East Midlands routes are expected to deliver much of the planned growth.

The “thorny” issue of drop-off charges at Northern Ireland’s airports has raised its ugly head again, with the recent announcement that Belfast International is increasing its charge from £3 to £5. For some “money conscious” passengers, that £5 is now an integral part of the total cost of the entire journey.

With Dublin airport charging nothing for the “drop off” the attraction of flying out of Dublin, instead of Belfast, might be – for some hard-nosed “Northerners” too good to resist!

Number of Passengers Handled by Northern Ireland’s Airports For the Years 2019, 2024 & 2025 (Rounded)

Photos supplied by NATHAN KOSKY, ADAM MACC, SWISSPORT and AIRSIDE N.I. Article by Declan Hasson.