Media

Dublin, 12 December, 2017 – Today, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) announced its prediction that it will have safely and efficiently managed over 1.15 million flights in 2017. This marks an increase of approximately 3% over 2016 figures.

With just two weeks remaining this year, the IAA is forecasting that record numbers for flights handled in Irish controlled airspace and at the three State airports of Dublin, Cork and Shannon.

Peter Kearney, Chief Executive Designate of the IAA said, "Air traffic has expanded again this year on top of the 8% expansion last year, driven by very strong lifts at both Dublin Airport and through Irish airspace on flights between Europe and North America.

Dublin airport handles about 85% of all flights in/out of Ireland and we are projecting an increase of about 4% for the full year 2017 to around 215,000 commercial movements. We’ve started work on the construction of a new Visual Control Tower at Dublin Airport so that the IAA is ready to support the ATC operational requirements for the new parallel runway in the years ahead.

Both Cork and Dublin are expected to handle a similar number of aircraft movements to last year and they’ve both expanded their route networks in 2017. 

Traffic between Europe and North America is continuing to expand and we expect it to be around 5% this year. It’s a strong indicate of the level of economic demand between Europe and the USA.

We’ve a great team of professional and dedicated staff. 2018 will bring new challenges, however the IAA operates a state-of-the-art air traffic management system, which has the capacity to handle more traffic in 2018 and the years ahead.”

Focussing on the month of November alone

The IAA also confirmed today that in relation to international arrivals and departures, the commercial terminal traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports was up by +6.3% in November 2017, when compared to November 2016.

Individually, the November 2017 figures for the three State airports, when compared to November 2016 are as follows;

• Commercial terminal flights at Dublin were up by +6.3% with an average of 541 daily commercial movements at Dublin.
• Commercial terminal flights at Cork were up by +5.9% with an average of 47 commercial daily movements at Cork.
• Commercial terminal flights at Shannon were up by +6.4% with an average of 48 commercial daily movements at Shannon.

These figures are particularly positive for Ireland, as it is the second-consecutive month that all State airports have seen positive increases.

Total flights safely handled in Ireland for November 2017 was recorded at 83,352 movements, which is an increase of 2.6% over November 2016.  Total flights handled includes; total terminal movements, North Atlantic Communications flights (Europe /US Flights) managed and overflights (flights, which do not land in Ireland).

The IAA’s analysis of North Atlantic Communications flights saw an increase of +3.7% in November 2017, when compared to November 2016. There was an increase of 3.6% in Ireland’s overflight traffic movements during November 2017, in comparison to November 2016.  There were 25,456 overflight traffic movements and 35,772 North Atlantic Communications flights during November 2017.

About Irish Aviation Authority

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) is a commercial semi-state company employing approximately 670 people at six main locations in Ireland. The Irish Aviation Authority promotes and regulates the safety of aviation in Ireland. The IAA is committed to developing and implementing effective strategies, regulatory frameworks and processes to ensure that aviation activities under our oversight achieve the highest practicable level of safety. The IAA is also responsible for the provision of Air Traffic Management (ATM) in Irish controlled airspace (covering some 451,000 square km) and State airports, aeronautical communications on the North Atlantic, and the security regulation of the civil aviation industry in Ireland.

For further information, please contact:

Manus Weed | +353 (0) 87 690 33 86| manus.weed@iaa.ie

IAA Website - www.iaa.ie

IAA Twitter - @iaapress