1.86 Million Passengers Passed Through Dublin Airport in March

Almost 1.86 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in March, an increase of 1.7 million passengers when compared to 2021, but a -24% drop when compared to pre-COVID19 levels in March 2019.

Almost 4.18m passengers have travelled through Dublin Airport in the first three months of the year, representing an increase of 844% versus last year. However, compared with the first three months of 2019, numbers are down by just over one third (-36%).

daa, which operates Dublin Airport, said that passenger numbers are continuing to rebound faster as the year develops and as consumer demand for overseas travel increases – fuelled by the ever-diminishing impact of Covid-19 restrictions and a seemingly greater acceptance of the need to live our lives alongside the virus. daa said this trend of growing passenger numbers has continued into the early weeks of April, with passenger numbers on some days now exceeding the same date figures in April 2019.

In March, passenger volumes to and from Continental Europe saw an increase of 932,000 versus the same month last year, however, that number was down -18% when compared with March 2019.

UK traffic reached 597,000 in March – an increase of 573,000 on the same month last year, but that figure was down almost one third (-31%) when compared to March 2019.

Passenger volumes to and from North America were also down by around one third (-32%) versus 2019, as 194,000 passengers travelled on transatlantic routes. Dublin Airport saw an increase of 176,000 passengers travelling to and from North America in March 2021 year versus the same period last year.

International passenger traffic to the Middle East totalled almost 53,000, which was 46,000 more than travelled in March 2021, but -27% lower than in 2019.

The addition of new direct services between Dublin and Donegal and Dublin and Kerry saw the number of passengers flying on domestic routes increase by 16% versus 2019, to 9,000. This was also 8,000 higher than last year.

Dublin Airport will serve 180 destinations worldwide this year, in partnership with 44 airlines, as it continues to rebuild its global reach following the devastating impact on the aviation sector due to COVID-19.