Media

13 March 2014: New airline services at Dublin and Shannon are set to boost Irish terminal air traffic. In particular, Dublin traffic will be boosted by a number of additional routes to Canada. In April, Aer Lingus will begin non-stop flights between Dublin and Toronto, seven times per week with a Boeing 757 aircraft. WestJet will also start daily service on 15 June with Boeing 737-700 from St. John's to Dublin, with connecting services from several other Canadian destinations.

Shannon air traffic is likewise set to see continuing increases, with Ryanair announcing a number of new routes for the summer, including Berlin, Paris, Fuerteventura, Warsaw, Faro, Munich, Nice and Krakow.

This positive news is against a backdrop of already promising terminal air traffic figures, with total traffic increasing at State airports by 6.2% in February 2014, when compared to February 2013.

Individually, the February 2014 figures for the three State airports, when compared to the same month in the previous year are:

• Commercial terminal flights at Dublin up 7.2% with an average of 404 daily movements. 
• Commercial terminal flights at Cork down 5.3%, with an average of 46 daily movements.
• Commercial terminal flights at Shannon up by 10.9% with an average of 40 daily movements.

On a cumulative basis, commercial terminal traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports for the period January – February 2014, was up by 6.4% when compared to the same period in 2013.
Statistics for the IAA’s North Atlantic Communications services (for flights operating between Europe and North America) saw an increase of 2.89% in February 2014, when compared to February 2013.

In relation to Ireland’s major departing and arriving air traffic flows during February 2014, data from EUROCONTROL indicates that there was growth or neutral growth on 48% of outbound flows, when compared to February 2013 and that there was growth or neutral growth on 57% of inbound flows, when compared to February 2013. Of note are the increases in outbound and inbound air traffic to Turkey (up 47% and 45% respectively) and Norway (up 17% and 14% respectively).

Outbound flows (departing Ireland)

Inbound flows (arriving into Ireland)

However, there was a decrease of 10.3% in Ireland’s en route traffic movements (flights that pass though Irish airspace but do not land) during February 2014, in comparison to February 2013. This decrease is seen as being largely attributable to recent storm activity.

On a cumulative basis; the change in en route traffic movements and North Atlantic Communications flights for the period January-February 2014, compared to the same period last year, was -9.7% and 1.6% respectively.

Total flights in Irish airspace have decreased by -4.50% when compared to February 2013. There was an average of 1,170 daily flights during February 2014, with the busiest day being 21st February with 1,339 flights in Irish airspace.

Click here for more detailed flight statistics.

For more information, contact:

Tony Lane,

Communications Executive,

Tel: +353 86 791 1864