5 August 2020
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
- Passenger Numbers Decline By 91% At Cork Airport During July
- Passengers numbers down by over 1 million cumulatively to the end of July
- 27 routes served in July 2020 versus 53 served in July 2019 (53% reduction in route choice)
- 5 airlines operating in July 2020 versus 10 in July 2019 (50% reduction in airlines operating)
- Loss of 2 Million passengers now expected by year-end
- €23 Million in lost revenues forecast by year-end
Cork Airport has released its traffic figures for the month of July, which reveals that passenger numbers are down by 91% in what should be its the busiest month of the year.
Passenger numbers are forecast to decline by more than 2 million passengers by the year-end due to the impact of COVID-19.
Cork Airport welcomed 2.6 million passengers last year and was the fastest-growing airport in Ireland in 2019 with 8% growth in traffic. Prior to the impact of COVID-19, it had witnessed further growth of 6% in January and February this year.
Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director at Cork Airport commented “July should have been the busiest month of the year at Cork Airport, however, we are reporting passenger numbers down 91% compared to last July. COVID-19 continues to have a massive impact on aviation globally and Cork Airport, no different than other airports, continues to be very severely impacted by the pandemic”.
Managing Director of Cork Airport, Niall MacCarthy
“We have seen our passenger numbers plummet by over 1 million in the last seven months alone and we expect passenger numbers to decline by 2 million by the end of the year. Aviation in Ireland now needs a clear path back to recovery be that with bilateral agreements for pre-departure testing with other countries, as daa has suggested, or with an equivalent workable solution. In the meantime, we look forward to the implementation of the recommendations from the Government appointed Aviation Taskforce to alleviate the financial repercussions of the pandemic on our sector”.
