Dublin Airport saw record numbers of passengers during January, with more than 2.1 million customers using the airport over the course of the month.
The figures were an impressive 2% higher than the same period in 2019, which previously held the highest passenger count for January. Thousands of people were seen traveling home after Christmas, with 95.7% of passengers passing through security screening in under 20 minutes, allowing efficient and safe travel for all.
According to the operator DAA, this is a fantastic way to start off 2021 as Dublin Airport looks set to break records again before long.
Daa CEO Kenny Jacobs said the volume of people traveling through both Dublin and Cork airports during January shows the “continued strong appetite that exists for overseas travel post-Covid”.
“The addition of an extra Bank Holiday weekend in February, combined with Valentine’s Day and the mid-term school break, means February will be another very busy month at both airports,” he said.
“We are expecting and planning for another busy year at Dublin Airport. The main focus is on improving security queue times and our standards in both terminals, especially Terminal 1.
January was an excellent month for air travel in Ireland, with Cork Airport showing the biggest growth. 162,000 passengers used Cork Airport in January, boasting a 149 percent increase from January 2022 and a 12 percent increase from January 2019.
Dublin Airport also saw a dramatic rise in passengers last month, with 2.27 million passengers compared to 2.15 million in January 2019 and 956,000 people in January 2022. The busiest days at Cork and Dublin Airport were the same week: Tuesday 3rd of Jan at Cork, drawing 6,900 passengers; and Monday 2nd of Jan at Dublin, seeing 88,900 passengers take off.
Both airports shared London Heathrow as their most popular destination throughout the month travelers could only hope for on-time departures as 78 percent of flights out of Cork and 76 percent out of Dublin ran according to schedule.
These impressive numbers bode well for the future of Irish air travel as passenger numbers are forecasted to increase by 10 percent over the coming years up to 2.4 million travelers using Cork airport alone.