New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that overseas travel to and from Ireland in December 20200 remained considerably lower than the same month in 2019 due to travel restrictions as the Covid-19 crisis continues around the world.
The CSO said there were a total of 1,372,600 arrivals in the country and 1,383,800 departures in December - falls of 88% and 87.1% respectively
However, the CSO said the level of overseas travel rose in December compared to November.
It recorded a total of 164,400 overseas passenger arrivals and 178,800 overseas passenger departures for December, compared to 103,900 arrivals and 96,800 departures in November - increases of 58.3% and 84.7% respectively.
The CSO said that of the 164,400 persons arriving in Ireland in December, 82.7% arrived by air and 17.3% arrived by sea.
Of the 178,800 persons leaving Ireland, 87.3% departed by air and 12.7% left by sea.
For the whole of 2020, the CSO said that 4,460,200 people arrived in Ireland from overseas and 4,452,600 people left the country - decreases of 77.9% and 78% respectively compared to 2019.
Today's figures also show that the most important staging countries for people travelling overseas to Ireland were the UK, Netherlands and Spain.
The most important staging countries for persons travelling overseas from Ireland were the UK, Spain and Poland, the CSO added.
