3 August 2024
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
Almost 3.7 million passengers went through the terminal doors of Cork and Dublin airports in July, with demand remaining very high this summer for overseas travel.
Cork Airport welcomed 328,200 passengers in July, which was 9% higher than the same month last year, continuing what is set to be the airport’s busiest ever summer for overseas travel.
Numbers travelling through Dublin Airport in July were 1% higher than the same month last year and 4.5% higher than in June. The busiest day at Dublin Airport during the month was Sunday, 28th of July when 122,300 passengers went through the airport’s two terminals.
daa CEO Kenny Jacobs said: “Cork Airport continues to enjoy a very busy summer season, with strong load factors on all inbound and outbound services. The security team in Cork are playing a blinder in getting 98% of our July passengers through in under 20 minutes. Cork is the Gateway to the South of Ireland, the Wild Atlantic Way, and Ireland’s Ancient East and it’s great to see many visitors flying into Cork to start their Irish holiday in one of the most scenic and picturesque parts of the country. That is evident given the significant increase in the number of passengers flying on services to and from continental Europe last month, with 13% more passengers flying to and from Spain, 31% more passengers flying to and from France and a whopping 41% more passengers flying to and from Germany.”
“In July, we launched the 2023 Economic Impact Study which showed that Cork Airport contributed over €1 billion to the Irish economy last year, and we celebrated the opening of a newly refurbished café and wine bar, “Roasted Notes” – which our Cork passengers are already loving.”
Speaking of the continued high demand to fly from Dublin Airport, Mr Jacobs added: “July was our busiest ever month for passengers at Dublin Airport, which followed our busiest ever June. Demand to fly in and out of Dublin Airport has never been higher, both from passengers, including hundreds of thousands of families heading off on much-anticipated summer breaks, and also from airlines who are keen to add new routes and increase the frequency of existing services at Ireland’s national airport.
“Passenger demand to fly is higher at Irish airports than at other airports in Europe, with the latest ACI figures showing that passenger numbers across Europe only just recovered to pre-pandemic levels in the first half of this year. At Dublin Airport, passengers numbers have been back at pre-Covid levels for more than 12 months – and passenger numbers would be higher if not for the actions that daa is taking to reduce passengers in order to comply with planning.”
“Every day in July saw more than 100,000 passengers travelling through Dublin Airport. Our brilliant security team at Dublin Airport continue to deliver high standards for passengers, with 94% of all departing passengers getting through security screening in under 20 minutes in July. The month was not without its challenges for the team due to the Aer Lingus pilots’ strike, which brought disruption for some passengers, and also the CrowdStrike IT outage which was handled very well by daa’s teams at Cork and Dublin airports to ensure minimal delays and only a small number of flight cancellations, while other airports around the world suffered much higher levels of disruption.
“August is going to be another busy month at both Cork and Dublin airports, with forecasts suggesting that the number of passengers passing through Dublin Airport’s two terminals could be as much as 5% higher than August 2023. As well as holiday traffic, we’re seeing strong demand for business customers and also from tourists flying into both airports from all over the world.”
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