The number of passengers who used Dublin Airport last year is still just 85% of 2019 levels, new data shows today.
Just over 28.1 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in 2022, an increase of 231% on 2021.
Dublin Airport noted that the recovery in passenger numbers following the Covid-19 pandemic continued to accelerate throughout the year.
Passenger traffic in the last three months of 2022 was 7.1 million, 96% of the data for the same period of 2019.
A total of 2.2 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in December.
This represented an increase of 1 million passengers compared to 2021 and 95% of the pre-pandemic passenger numbers in December 2019.
26.5 million passengers started or ended their journey at Dublin Airport, while 1.33 million of the total used the airport as a transfer hub last year.
Compared to 2021 data, short-haul traffic increased by 216% to 23.9 million, while long-haul passenger numbers increased by 366% to nearly 4.2 million.
In 2022, passenger numbers to and from mainland Europe increased by 198% from 2021 levels to 15.9 million.
The number of passengers traveling to and from Dublin Airport and the UK was down 24% from 2019 but up 257% from 2021 to 7.8 million.
Transatlantic traffic is up 383% from 2021, down 17% from 2019. Traffic to and from mainland Europe is down 8%, while passengers traveling to and from the UK from Dublin airport decreased by 24%.
Passenger numbers on flights to and from other international destinations, including flights to the Middle East, increased by 302% compared to 2021.
Daa’s new CEO Kenny Jacobs said that after a two-year Covid-related disruption, 2022 was the year international travel made a strong comeback.
“When you consider that passenger numbers during the first two months of 2022 were very low due to uncertainty around the Omicron variant, the recovery in passenger numbers from March onwards was way beyond the expectations of even the most optimistic of travel forecasters,” Mr Jacobs said, reports RTE.
But he said the resumption of travel has presented challenges for Dublin Airport and airports around the world.
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