New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that almost half a million more passengers used Irish airports in the second quarter of this year compared with the same time last year.
A total of 11.2 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports in the second quarter of 2024, an increase of 4% compared with the 10.7 million passengers the same time last year and the 10.5 million passengers in 2019.
The five main airports are Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry.
Today's CSO figures show that almost 19.5 million passengers passed through the five main airports in the first half of 2024, which was 1.1 million more passengers than in the first six months of 2023.
They also reveal that the number of flights to and from Irish airports in the first half of 2024 increased by 4,217 when compared with the same time last year - 134,789 compared to 130,572.
Over 75,000 flights were handled by the five main airports, with Dublin handling 84% of all flights (63,485), while Cork handled 7% of all flights (5,559).
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol and Malaga were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in the three months fromm April, May and June.
The top route for Cork and Shannon was London-Heathrow, while it was London-Luton for Knock, and Dublin for Kerry.
Meanwhile, the amount of air freight handled by the main airports rose by 9% to 46,444 tonnes in the second quarter of 2024 when compared with the same three month time in 2023.
