daa November Passenger Numbers at Cork and Dublin Airports Take Off

Cork Airport heading towards it’s busiest business year ever for international traffic. Almost 2.2 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in November

Cork Airport is forecast to have its busiest year in its history in terms of international passengers this year with 2.75 million set to fly in and out of the Munster’s most popular airport in 2023. Last month, 191,000 passengers flew to and from Cork Airport, a 14% increase on November 2022. Almost 2.2 million passengers passed through the doors of Dublin Airport in November, a 4% increase on the same month last year, according to new figures published by airport operator daa. A further 102,000 transfer and transit passengers used Dublin Airport during the month.

The busiest day of travel at the state’s two busiest airports in November was Sunday, November 5, the final day of the mid-term school holidays, when almost 98,000 passengers passed through Dublin Airport and almost 10,000 passengers flew to and from Cork Airport.

Passengers flying from Dublin Airport enjoyed a smooth experience in November with 95% going through security screening in under 15 minutes, with almost every passenger (99%) going through in less than 20 minutes. At Cork Airport, passengers also experienced a swift security screening process with 97% clearing security in less than 15 minutes and 99% in less than 20 minutes.

In November, carbon per passenger at Dublin Airport was 0.84kg, a reduction of 4% on the 2022 performance. This data relates to the airport’s scope 1 and 2 emissions and is a rolling annual average carbon figure.

According to Kenny Jacobs, daa’s CEO: “December will be a very busy and important month for us at our Irish airports in Dublin and Cork as we facilitate the journeys of millions of passengers coming home for Christmas. Mid-December will also see a new Infrastructure Application submitted to Fingal County Council which would enable Dublin Airport to grow beyond the current 32 million passenger cap. As it stands, that application is likely to take at least two years to be approved, which will result in stalled growth at Dublin Airport in both 2024 and 2025.”

“Cork Airport will experience it’s busiest year for international traffic in the airports 62-year history, with a total of 2.75 million passengers anticipated for 2023 in total. That is 22% growth in the space of 12 months. The significant growth of passenger numbers at Cork Airport is due to the increasing number of destinations at the busiest airport serving the South of Ireland. Cork Airport remains the most popular choice for passengers from across Munster and South Leinster with a friendly airport experience, conveniently located car parking and really quick security queues.”

“We continue to have discussions with our airline customers about their schedules for next spring, summer and beyond to ensure that passenger numbers for 2024 will remain below the 32 million level. Until planning permission to grow beyond 32 million passengers is granted, daa will continue to manage the passenger capacity to ensure that current planning restrictions are not breached.”

“Our new planning application will look for an increase in the passenger cap and also permission to build more modern and sustainable infrastructure needed to reduce Dublin Airport’s scope 2 emissions and meet our target of being net zero for carbon by 2050. Independent analysis has found that keeping the current 32 million cap would lead to Ireland forgoing an additional 17,800 jobs and €1.5 billion in GVA by 2030. By 2055, the number of jobs lost to Ireland would be 53,300 – the equivalent to the population of Waterford – while €4.4 billion would be lost in GVA to the Irish economy. We simply need to build for Irelands future population and economic growth,” he added.