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There were 582,218 flights handled last year, compared to 299,941 in 2021 and 646,596 in 2019. This represents a 94.1% increase in 2022 compared to 2021. However, the overall level of activity was10% lower than those reported for 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19.=

Mr Peter Kearney, Chief Executive of the IAA said that the increased level of traffic in Irish airspace reflected the demand for connectivity for business and leisure travel.

“We are confident that air travel will continue to increase in 2023 and the challenge for all air aviation stakeholders throughout the world is to have the resources to make sure crews and passengers can travel safely at all times. We continue to work closely with the Eurocontrol Network Manager to assist in ensuring the European network as a whole will function efficiently to manage to overall increased traffic in 2023.

“In January, seventeen graduates officially joined the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) Air Navigation Service Provider section. Nine are now Air Traffic Control graduates and joined the current team of 261 across air traffic management (ATM) services centres in Dublin, Shannon and Cork. Eight are engineers working in the IAA Technical Services Directorate. We continue to recruit and train suitably qualified candidates for these careers to meet the demand for our services,” he said.  

Mr Kearney said that whilst remaining conscious of the continued challenges for the aviation sector, the IAA is optimistic of continued growth in the sector in 2023.

“Aviation is an enabling industry for economic and social wellbeing. It is vital that all routes, particularly the North Atlantic routes return to normal this year,” he said.

Statistics

In 2022, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) air traffic management services handled 582,218 flights. This represents a 10% decrease in activity compared to 2019.

There were 321,784 overflight traffic movements (-8.5% on 2019) and 457,336 North Atlantic Communications flights during 2021, (-9.5% on 2019). Most of these overflights do not land in Ireland.

In December 2022, there were 46,053 flights during December 2022. This represents 23% increase on December 2021. Arrivals and departures traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports was 19,031, (-2.5% compared to December 2019).

Traffic at the three State airports in December:

• There were 16,378 commercial terminal flights at Dublin.
• There were 1,239 commercial terminal flights at Cork.
• There were 1,414 commercial terminal flights at Shannon