Overseas travel remains dramatically lower in April compared to pre-Covid-19 pandemic times, new Central Central Statistics figures show.
The CSO reported 69,400 overseas passenger arrivals and 73,000 overseas passenger departures in April, an increase of 13.1% and 9.8% respectively on the figures for March.
The CSO said that overseas travel in April of this year increased more than threefold compared April 2020, when there were 16,100 arrivals and 17,800 departures.
But it added that for every overseas traveller in April 2021, there were 24 in pre-pandemic April 2019, when a total of 1,712,900 arrivals and 1,736,400 departures were recorded.
This represented biennial drops of 95.9% and 95.8% respectively.
Today's figures show that of the 69,400 persons arriving in Ireland in April 2021, 88.5% arrived by air and 11.5% arrived by sea.
Of the 73,000 persons leaving Ireland, 84.3% departed by air and 15.7% departed by sea.
The CSO said that continental routes accounted for most passenger traffic, with 57.8% of arrivals and 51% of departures.
The cross-channel route was the next busiest, with 31.2% of arrivals and 38.3% departures, but the transatlantic route saw just 4.8% of arrivals and 4.6% of departures in April.
During the months from January to April this year, a total of 293,700 people arrived in Ireland from overseas and 311,400 persons left the country.
This compares with 3,101,300 arrivals and 3,063,100 departures during the same time in 2020, and 5,579,300 arrivals and 5,575,700 departures in the same time in 2019, the CSO said.
