Media

10^th September 2015: Air traffic at Dublin Airport continued its strong upward trend in August with 11% growth recorded. On average there were 585 commercial movements every day at the State’s biggest airport. August also saw a welcome return to growth at Cork Airport with air traffic growing by a modest 1.3%. On average there were 64 commercial flights at Cork daily.

In total, international arrivals and departures at the State airports was up by 6.6% in August 2015, when compared to August 2014. This equates to an average of 705 flights at the State airports every day.

When combined, total flights in Irish airspace increased by 7.4% when compared to August 2014. There was an average of 1,776 daily flights during August 2015, with the busiest day being 20^th August with 1,875 flights in Irish airspace.

Eamonn Brennan, Chief Executive, Irish Aviation Authority said: ‘These latest figures show that Dublin continues to record very strong growth and has now returned to pre-downturn levels. Looking to the future, the IAA believes that the development of a parallel runway at Dublin is crucial to ensuring its continued growth and development as a secondary international hub. We are also very happy with Cork’s modest growth performance in August’.

Ireland’s transatlantic traffic also saw strong growth in August. There was an increase of 10.1% in en route traffic movements (flights that pass through Irish airspace but do not land) during August 2015, in comparison to August 2014, while North Atlantic Communications flights (Europe / North America flights) saw an increase of 5.2%. In total there were 31,773 en route traffic movements and 43,892 North Atlantic Communications flights during August 2015.

Individually, the August 2015 figures for the three State airports, when compared to the same month last year are:

• Dublin up 10.9% with an average of 585 daily commercial movements.
• Cork up 1.3% with an average of 64 commercial daily movements.
• Shannon down 21.1% with an average of 56 commercial daily movements. (Note: Despite less movements, higher load factors have resulted in an overall 7% increase in terminal passenger numbers year–to-date at Shannon Airport.)

Click here to view more detailed flight statistics.

For media queries, contact:

Tony Lane,

Communications Executive,

Tel: +353 86 791 1864