New figures from airport operator daa show that a total of 2.3 million passengers passed through Ireland's two busiest airports - Dublin Airport and Cork Airport - in February.
Passengers at Cork Airport jumped by 23% to 193,000 in February, while numbers were up by 5% to 2.1 million at Dublin Airport compared to the same month last year.
Daa noted that 99% of passengers went through security screening in under 20 minutes at Dublin Airport and 100% through in under 20 minutes at Cork Airport last month.
Kenny Jacobs, the CEO of daa, said the number of passengers using Dublin Airport could be higher, but growth remains constrained due to the airport's cap of 32 million passengers a year.
Mr Jacobs said that Dublin Airport is speaking with airlines who want to fly directly to Dublin every week, but added that a planning cap of 32 million passengers a year on terminals 1 and 2 makes this a challenging situation.
"Ultimately raising the cap to 40 million, as daa has proposed in a recent planning application to Fingal County Council, would open the door to more routes and services, more tourists, more jobs, and more economic growth and we hope that process moves quickly," he said.
"In the meantime, we are continuing to work proactively with the airlines and the Irish Aviation Authority as the slots regulator with a view to managing capacity," he added.
