Over 288,000 additional passengers used Irish airports in Quarter 2 (Q2) 2026 when compared with Q2 2025.
In Q2 2026, 12.3 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports, compared with 12.0 million passengers in the same period in 2025 and 11.2 million in Q2 2024.
In the first half of 2026, 21.4 million passengers passed through the main Irish airports, which was 1.2 million more people than in the first six months of 2025.
Over 82,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in Q2 2026, with Dublin handling 82% of all flights (68,104), while Cork handled 8% of all flights (6,548). The number of flights to and from Irish airports in the first half of 2026 increased by 8,122 when compared with the same period in 2025 (147,260 vs 139,138).
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q2 2026. The top route for Cork and Shannon was London-Heathrow, while it was London-Luton for Knock, and Dublin for Kerry.
The tonnage of air freight handled by Irish airports in Q2 2026 was up 11% when compared with Q2 2025.
Figure 1 illustrates the passenger numbers from Q2 2022 to 2026.
| Passenger number distribution by airport, Q2 2026 | |
| Dublin | 83 |
| Cork | 8 |
| Shannon | 6 |
| Other | 3 |
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (02 September 2026) published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 2 (Q2) 2026. Passenger numbers are received for the five main airports: Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry.
Commenting on the release, Damien Lenihan, Statistician, said: “The figures show an increase in international travel during April, May, and June (Q2) 2026. Passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up 2% when compared with Q2 2025 (12,332,966 vs 12,044,920), and up 10% when compared with Q2 2024.
When compared with Q2 2025, 164,211 more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q2 2026, and this was 531,174 more passengers than in the same period in 2024.
In Q2 2026, 6.2 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was an increase of 123,835 passengers when compared with the same period in 2025.
Looking at the data for the first half of 2026, 21.4 million passengers passed through Irish airports which was 1.2 million more passengers when compared with the same period in 2025, and 1.9 million more than the same six-month period in 2024.
The amount of air freight handled by the main airports rose by 11% to 55,610 tonnes in Q2 2026 when compared with the same period in 2025.
Airports and Routes
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q2 2026. The top route for Cork and Shannon was London-Heathrow, while it was London-Luton for Knock, and the most popular route for passengers using Kerry airport was Dublin.
In Q2 2026, almost nine out of every ten passengers (85%) on international flights in the five main airports were travelling to or from Europe. The two most popular countries of origin or destination were the United Kingdom and Spain. Outside of Europe, the United States of America was the most popular country of origin or destination in Q2 2026.”