New figures from the Central Statistics Office show an increase in international travel in 2024 with the number of passengers using Irish airports hitting a new record high.
A total of 40,983,338 passengers travelled through the country’s five main airports – Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry – last year, which marked the highest number of passengers since the CSO began monitoring these statistics in 2013.
The CSO noted that almost 1.8 million or 5% more passengers used Irish airports in 2024 compared with 2023.
Passenger numbers in the fourth quarter of 2024 were also 2% higher at 9.2 million when compared with the fourth quarter of 2023, it added.
Today’s CSO figures show that over 279,000 flights were handled by the five main airports here last year, with Dublin handling 84% of all flights (234,570), while Cork handled 7% of all flights (20,864).
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport last year.
The top route for Cork and Shannon airports was London-Heathrow, for Knock airport it was London-Stansted, and for Kerry airport it was Dublin.
The CSO said that over 891,000 more passengers travelled to Ireland in 2024 compared to 2023, while 20.5 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was almost 906,000 more than in 2023.
