Media

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) confirmed today that air traffic grew by 8.3% last year, making 2016 a record year for Irish aviation. This included a;

• 7.3% increase in overflight traffic movements to 341,082 (flights, which do not land in Ireland),
• 7.7% increase in North Atlantic Communications flights to 476,790 (flights between Europe /US),
• 10.6% increase in Terminal movements to 290,388 (total commercial & non-commercial flights at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports).

Eamonn Brennan, Chief Executive of the IAA said, "Air traffic growth at Irish airports is one of the key driver’s behind the tourism boom in Ireland in recent years. We’ve safely handled over 1.1m flights in Irish controlled airspace and at the three State airports, including nearly 300,000 flights at Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports.

Reflecting on the fact that airlines are continuing to add capacity within Europe and on the Transatlantic, he added “The industry is continuing to grow. We’ll see new routes out of all our airports in 2017 and through Irish airspace and we’re continuing to work hard to safely facilitate this demand so we can help keep the expansion going. Our systems and people will cope with these increases. “

Focusing on December 2016 alone:

Total flights handled by the IAA in December 2016 were 82,370 movements - an increase of 4.6% over December 2015. This Includes total terminal movements, North Atlantic Communications flights and overflights.

The IAA’s analysis of North Atlantic Communications flights (Europe /US Flights) show an increase of 3.9% in December 2016, when compared to December 2015, whilst at the same time, Ireland’s overflight traffic movements (flights, which do not land in Ireland) were stable at a growth rate of 0.1%. There were 36,029 North Atlantic Communications flights and 25,384 overflight traffic movements during December 2016.

In relation to international arrivals and departures, the commercial terminal traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports was up by 4.9% in December 2016, when compared to December 2015. Individually, the December 2016 figures for the three State airports, when compared to the same month in the previous year are:

• Commercial terminal flights at Dublin were up by +5.9% with an average of 495 daily commercial movements at Dublin.
• Commercial terminal flights at Cork were down by -2.4%, with an average of 43 commercial daily movements at Cork.
• Commercial terminal flights at Shannon were up by +1.1% with an average of 43 commercial daily movements at Shannon.

An analysis of the December 2016 data, from EUROCONTROL, also shows that six of Ireland’s Top ten “Airport Pairs” (from a billing perspective) showed growth (or neutral growth), when compared to December 2015. The most significant growth was for Liverpool – Dublin (+22.67%), Schiphol/Amsterdam – Dublin (+15.3%) and London/Gatwick – Dublin (+15%).



Click here for more detailed flight statistics.