New Central Statistics Office figures show that passenger arrivals were higher in May of this year compared to pre-pandemic May 2019, rising by 3.2%.
The CSO's latest Air and Sea Travel Statistics show that 1,877,900 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in May of this year.
This marked a substantial increase on May 2022, when 1,592,400 passengers arrived on overseas routes.
The CSO said the growth in May is even more substantial when compared with May 2021 when just 85,400 passengers arrived on these routes.
A total of 1,818,900 passengers had arrived on overseas routes in May 2019, it added.
Today's figures show that the recovery is seen in both modes of travel - air and sea - although the recovery in air travel is most pronounced, as it rose by 17.9% in May compared with the same month last year.
The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most (27.3%) in relative terms, increasing from 171,300 in May last year to 218,000 in May 2023.
Among the continental routes, Spanish routes remain the busiest, with 264,900 passengers arriving on these routes in May 2023, up 20.3% on May 2022. Spain was followed by the US (194,000) and France (124,000).
