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The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) confirmed today that total air traffic safely handled by the IAA increased by 3% (or 88,202 movements) in March 2017 compared to the same month in 2016.

There was an increase of 5.6% in North Atlantic Communications flights (Europe /US Flights) to 38,768 during March 2017 in comparison to March 2016. Ireland’s overflight traffic movements (flights, which do not land in Ireland) saw a slight increase of 0.1%, to 26,720. In relation to international arrivals and departures, the commercial terminal traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports was up by 2.2% in March 2017, when compared to March 2016.

Mr. Eamonn Brennan, Chief Executive of the IAA said; “Ireland’s air traffic performance for last month is consistent with the rest of Europe. Preliminary data for March reported by ECAC (European Civil Aviation Conference area) indicates that average daily flights for all of Europe were up 4.3% on March 2016. At the same time, Ireland plays a central role in North Atlantic service provision as we are the gateway between Europe and North America. The 5.6% growth in North Atlantic Communications flights during March is quite encouraging.”

The new EUROCONTROL Seven-Year Forecast of Flight Movements and Service Units 2017-2023 predicts an average growth of 1.9% per annum in ECAC between 2016 and 2023 in the baseline forecast. In this most-likely scenario, there will be circa 11.6 million flights in 2023, 14% more than in 2016. For Ireland, EUROCONTROL are forecasting a 2.5% growth in flight movements in 2017.

Individually, the March 2017 figures for the three State airports, when compared to the same month in the previous year are:

• Dublin up by 2.9% with an average of 534 daily commercial movements at Dublin.
• Cork down by 6.2%, with an average of 46 commercial daily movements at Cork.
• Shannon up by 2.8% with an average of 46 commercial daily movements at Shannon.

An analysis of the March 2017 data, from EUROCONTROL, also shows that six of Ireland’s Top ten “Airport Pairs” showed growth (or neutral growth), when compared to March 2016. The most significant growth was for Schiphol/Amsterdam – Dublin (+42.7%), London/Gatwick – Dublin (+15%) and Newark – London/Heathrow (+6.3%).

The IAA’s monthly analysis of delays from Air Traffic Flow Regulations, indicates that there were zero aircraft delayed during the month of March.