Media

10th June 2015: Buoyant demand for air traffic is continuing on the North Atlantic, with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) recording a 4.1% increase in the volume of North Atlantic Communications flights between Europe and North America during May 2015 compared to the same month in 2014.

Eamonn Brennan, Chief Executive of the IAA said, “We handle 90% of all air traffic between Europe and North America transiting through Irish-controlled airspace. In May, we safely handled over 39,200 North Atlantic Communications flights, compared to 37,700 in May 2014.”  

According to Eurocontrol, the ‘New York JFK / London Heathrow’ airport pair is the busiest airport pair transiting through Irish airspace and grew by 5.3% in May to an average of 40.3 daily flights. Focusing on the Ireland/USA market, Eurocontrol statistics also show a 6.8% increase in the volume of traffic arriving and departing at Irish airports.

“These traffic figures show a continued upward trend on the North Atlantic and that’s a very good yardstick of strengthening economic conditions within North America and Europe. The strength of the US Dollar against the Euro is stimulating demand from the USA. Dublin Airport is really growing these key North America markets – another good sign for the Irish tourism sector”, said Eamonn Brennan.

Year-to-date, Ireland’s en route traffic (flights which do not land in Ireland) are up 3.9%, whilst total flights in Irish airspace are up 4.0%. There was an average of 1,617 daily flights during the month of May, with the busiest day being 22nd May with 1,836 flights in Irish airspace. Furthermore, there was an average of 658 daily commercial flights at Irish State airports.  

In relation to international arrivals and departures at the Irish State airports, the commercial terminal traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports was up by +2.9%.

Individually, the May 2015 figures for the three State airports, when compared to the same month in the previous year are:

• Dublin up +7.1% (with an average of 549 commercial daily movements at Dublin).
• Cork down -13.8% (with an average of 53 commercial daily movements at Cork).
• Shannon down -15% (with an average of 56 commercial daily movements at Shannon).

In global industry news this week, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced their forecast that the global industry will generate a net profit of $29.3 billion in 2015 on revenues of $727 billion (net profit margin of 4%). North American carriers are contributing over half of the industry’s profit—about $15.7 billion.

Tony Tyler, IATA DG said, “The strongest driver of improved profitability is efficiency. This year we expect airlines to fill 80.2% of their seats—a record high load factor that shows how much progress has been made in fine-tuning and focusing the business.”

North American carriers will make an average of $18.12 per passenger. In contrast, Middle East carriers will make an average of $9.30 per passenger and European carriers will make $6.30 per passenger. In Asia Pacific it is $4.24. And for Latin America and Africa it is $2.27 and $1.59 respectively.

ENDS

For media queries, contact:

Tony Lane
Communications Executive
Irish Aviation Authority
Tel: +353 1 603 1199
Mob: +353 86 7911864