Dublin and Cork airports welcomed 37.7m passengers in 2024

Dublin Airport exceeded 32m terminals passenger cap in December.

Dublin and Cork airports welcomed more than 2.5m passengers through their terminals* in December, rounding out a strong year for both airports, daa announced today. The total number of passengers through both airports in 2024 was 37.7m, reflecting strong demand for travel from tourists, business people and the general public, as well as continued population growth.

Cork continues to grow

Cork Airport had a record-breaking December, welcoming 211k passengers, a 7% increase on December 2023. The busiest day was Saturday, December 28, when 10k passengers passed through the airport, up 15.6% versus the same day in 2023. Another significant milestone was achieved on Friday, December 20, when Cork welcomed its three millionth passenger, the first time Cork surpassed this yearly milestone since 2008. 2024 was also the busiest year for international passenger traffic in the airport’s 63-year history, and Cork Airport was Ireland’s fastest-growing airport in 2024.

Cork is set for further growth in 2025, with the airport offering direct services to 14 countries, with 56 routes operated by nine scheduled airlines. Cork Airport is also finalising a new Capital Development Plan, which will deliver key infrastructure projects to enable the airport to handle significantly more passengers in line with population growth and demand for travel. Details of this will be revealed in the first quarter of 2025.

Dublin starts to slow

Dublin Airport’s 11-month growth run ended in December. While the airport welcomed 2.29m passengers through its terminals, this was a 1% decline versus December 2023, in contrast to the previous 11 months which all saw increases. The busiest day was Sunday, December 29, when 98k passengers went through the terminals, a 4% decline versus the same day in 2023. The reductions reflect the impact of the winter seat cap parameter put in place by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to address Dublin Airport’s 32m planning cap. This meant airlines could not add ad hoc or charter flights during December as they would have previously.

Overall, 2024 was a year of growth despite daa’s effort to dampen demand, with a total of 33.3m passengers through the terminals, a 4% increase on 2023 numbers. Including connecting and other passengers, the total number of passengers using Dublin Airport in 2024 was 34.6m (+3.3% vs 2023). On 171 days of 2024, the airport managed more than 100k passengers a day, demonstrating its operational capacity to manage 36m passengers a year. Given the strong demand for travel in and out of Dublin Airport, daa estimates that overall numbers would have been even higher had it not been for the terminals passenger cap and daa’s initiatives to dampen demand to comply with planning.

Looking to 2025, Ireland is the only country among the top 20 European countries for air travel to show a decline in scheduled seat capacity in Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024, according to industry data**. Ireland is predicted to decline 3.3% in contrast to countries like the UK (+3.9%), Germany (+4.7%), France (7.1%) and Spain (8.1%). This is due to the IAA winter seat cap parameter at Dublin Airport, which continues until the end of March, as well as decisions by airlines to cut some regular routes. However, as the Irish High Court has placed a stay on the seat cap element of the IAA’s summer slots decision pending clarity from the European Court of Justice, the IAA is now in a position to grant additional slots to airlines for summer 2025.

On December 20, daa lodged a ‘no build’ Operational Application (OA) with Fingal County Council (FCC) seeking permission to lift the passenger cap to 36m a year. As the application does not seek permission to build any infrastructure, daa hopes that it can move swiftly through the planning system and provide a short-term solution to the terminals cap impasse impacting Ireland’s connectivity, tourism and economy.

The OA is additional to daa’s Infrastructure Application (IA) to increase the cap to 40m a year and enable €2.4bn of investment in critical infrastructure and sustainability improvements at Dublin Airport. This was lodged on December 15, 2023.

CEO and CFO commentary

Commenting, Kenny Jacobs, daa CEO, said: “2024 was a strong year for both Dublin and Cork airports, and I’d like to thank all the hardworking staff at both airports who sent more than 37 million passengers on their way with a smile throughout the year. Demand for travel was huge throughout the year at both airports, and it was great to see Cork hit the three million passenger milestone for the first time since 2008. We have big plans for Cork’s ongoing growth and look forward to revealing the details of our new masterplan soon, which will continue to support Cork as Ireland’s fastest growing airport. 

“Dublin’s numbers tell a different story; we had both a year of growth with very strong airline and passenger demand, while we were making every effort to dampen demand because of the terminals passenger cap. daa’s job on behalf of the Irish state is to ensure our island nation’s connectivity for the benefit of our economy and everyone in Ireland, but we cannot do that effectively while the cap remains in place. There is widespread agreement that a pragmatic and constructive approach is needed to resolve this critical national issue impacting Ireland’s main transport hub. The main government parties recognised the importance of lifting the cap in their election manifestos and we look forward to seeing how this issue will be addressed in the programme for government. In the meantime, daa continues to concentrate on resolving the issue through the planning system, including lodging a ‘no build’ operational application in December to lift the cap to 36 million.”

Commenting on the financial performance of daa in 2024, Peter Dunne, daa CFO, said: “daa has delivered a strong second half financial performance, building on the solid results reported for the first half across all areas of the business including our  Dublin and Cork airports and our international businesses,  ARI and daa International. We expect full year revenue for the Group to be up year-on-year by circa 8% at in excess of €1.1 billion. This strong financial performance has enabled continued investment in critical long-term capital projects, with a capital spend across the group for 2024 of circa €230 million, while at the same time reducing our net debt position at year end to less than €700 million. We will publish our full year 2024 results on 30 April 2025 and look forward to sharing more details then.”