The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 3 (Q3) 2023. Passenger numbers are received for the five main airports: Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry.
| Number of passengers handled by main airports, Quarter 3 2019-2023 | ||||||
| Airport | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | % change 2022-2023 |
| Dublin | 9,852,369 | 1,270,411 | 3,202,834 | 8,840,733 | 9,928,539 | 12% |
| Cork | 832,198 | 90,287 | 133,809 | 767,806 | 866,942 | 13% |
| Shannon | 536,697 | 45,505 | 125,294 | 465,036 | 601,388 | 29% |
| Knock | 259,988 | 27,513 | 69,145 | 252,595 | 268,345 | 6% |
| Kerry | 116,018 | 19,968 | 45,426 | 118,069 | 133,729 | 13% |
| Total | 11,597,270 | 1,453,684 | 3,576,508 | 10,444,239 | 11,798,943 | 13% |
Commenting on the release, Dr Nele van der Wielen, Statistician, said: “The figures show an increase in international travel during July, August, and September (Q3) 2023. Passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up by 2% when compared with Q3 2019 and up by 13% compared with Q3 2022.
Almost 672,000 more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q3 2023 when compared with Q3 2022, and this was almost 110,000 more passengers when compared with the same period in 2019.
In Q3 2023, 5.8 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was 683,000 more than the same period in 2022, and almost 92,000 more people when compared with Q3 2019.
It is interesting to note that the number of flights to and from Irish airports rose in Q3 2023 by 9,370 flights when compared with the same period in 2022. However, there were 670 fewer flights when compared with the same period in 2019.
More than 78,000 flights were handled by Ireland’s five main airports in Q3 2023, with Dublin handling 83% of all flights (65,020), while Cork accounted for 8% of all flights (5,891).
Most Popular Routes and Destinations
London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick, and Amsterdam-Schiphol were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin Airport in Q3 2023. The top route for Cork and Shannon was London Heathrow, while the busiest route for Knock was London-Stansted, and the most popular route for passengers using Kerry Airport was Dublin.
In Q3 2023, almost nine out of every ten passengers (85%) on international flights in the five main airports were travelling to or from Europe. The two most popular countries of origin/destination were the United Kingdom and Spain. Outside of Europe, the United States of America was the most popular country of origin/destination in Q3 2023.
Looking at the data for the first nine months of 2023, 30.2 million passengers passed through Irish airports which was 5.9 million more passengers when compared with the same period in 2022, and 651,000 more than the first nine months of 2019.
The amount of air freight handled by the main airports increased by 8% to 44,379 tonnes in Q3 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.”
