Press Statement

Preasráiteas

29 October 2021

Go to release: Air and Sea Travel Statistics September 2021

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (29 October 2021) released Air and Sea Travel Statistics September 2021.

Commenting on the release, Gregg Patrick, Statistician, said: “The Air and Sea Travel Statistics for September 2021 show that overseas travel held steady compared to the preceding month. In September 2021, 810,100 overseas passengers arrived in Ireland, compared to 821,700 in August 2021, a decrease of 1.4%. In September 2021, 792,000 overseas passengers departed from Ireland, compared to 781,000 in August 2021, an increase of 1.4%.

The September 2021 statistics show that continental routes contributed most to the passenger traffic. Some 493,100 passengers arrived on continental routes and 458,600 passengers departed on continental routes. By way of contrast, 252,700 passengers arrived on cross-channel routes and 277,100 passengers departed on cross-channel routes. Just 40,500 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes and 40,000 passengers departed on these routes.

Apart from Great Britain (which accounted for almost all cross-channel routes), the most important routing countries for overseas travel in September 2021 were Spain (128,800 arrivals, 130,300 departures), France (53,000 arrivals, 49,600 departures) and Portugal (48,300 arrivals, 48,100 departures).

When we look at the year-to-date picture (January-September 2021), the statistics show that 2,551,600 overseas passengers arrived in Ireland and 2,609,100 overseas passengers departed from Ireland. This compares to both four million arrivals and departures in the same period in 2020 and 15.7 million arrivals and 15.8 million departures in the same period in 2019. This illustrates the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel to and from Ireland.”

-- ENDS --