New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that passenger numbers at the five main Irish airports increased in the first quarter of this year but are still not back to pre-Covid 2019 levels.
The CSO said a total of 4.7 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports.
This is more than 11 times compared to the first quarter of 2021 but a fall of 21% when compared with the same time in 2020.
The numbers were also 37% lower on 2019.
The five main airports in Ireland are Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Kerry and Knock.
The CSO said the number of flights to and from Irish airports in the first three months of the year increased by more than 32,000 compared to the same time in 2021.
Almost 2.2 million more passengers travelled to Ireland in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the first quarter of 2021, but this is 1.6 million fewer passengers when compared with the same time in 2019.
Meanwhile, 2.3 million passengers departed from Ireland in the first three months of the year, which was 2.1 million more than the same time in 2021, but still fewer by 1.6 million when compared with the first quarter of 2019.
Slightly more than 41,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in the first quarter of 2022, with Dublin handling 85% of all flights (35,120), while Cork handled 7% of all flights (2,683).
Today's figures show that London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick and Amsterdam-Schiphol were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in the first quarter of 2022.
The top route for Cork, Shannon, and Knock airports was London-Stansted, while the top route for Kerry was London-Luton.
Meanwhile, the number of passengers arriving to or departing from Ireland in March rose by 76% compared with March 2020 but is still 25% lower than the same month in 2019.
Air freight handled by Irish airports in the first quarter of this year was slightly down by 2% compared to the same time last year.
