In Quarter 3 (Q3) 2025, 13.1 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports compared with 12.4 million passengers in the same period in 2024. This was an increase of more than 700,000 additional passengers.
In the first nine months of 2025, 33.4 million passengers passed through the main Irish airports, which was 1.5 million more people than in the first nine months of 2024.
Over 85,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in Q3 2025, with Dublin handling 83% of all flights (70,415), while Cork handled 8% of all flights (7,076).
The number of flights to and from Irish airports in the first nine months of 2025 increased by almost 9,000 when compared with the same period in 2024 (224,321 vs 215,327).
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q3 2025. 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 Q3 2025 was up 8% when compared with Q3 2024.
On a seasonally adjusted basis there was no change in the number of passengers handled by the main Irish airports between Q2 and Q3 2025.
Figure 1 illustrates the passenger numbers from Q3 2021 to 2025.
| Passenger number distribution by airport, Q3 2025 | |
| Dublin | 83 |
| Cork | 8 |
| Shannon | 5 |
| Other | 3 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (18 December 2025) published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 3 (Q3) 2025. 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 July, August, and September (Q3) 2025. Passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up by 6% when compared with Q3 2024 (13,104,886 vs 12,364,310), and up by 11% when compared with Q3 2023.
When compared with Q3 2024, 391,574 more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q3 2025, and this was 666,386 more passengers than in the same period in 2023.
In Q3 2025, 6.5 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was an increase of 349,002 when compared with the same period in 2024 and an increase of 638,885 compared with the same period in 2023.
Looking at the data for the first nine months of 2025, 33.4 million passengers passed through Irish airports which was 1.5 million more passengers when compared with the same period in 2024, and 3.2 million more than the same nine-month period in 2023.
The amount of air freight handled by the main airports rose by 8% to 53,811 tonnes in Q3 2025 when compared with the same period in 2024.
Airports and Routes
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q3 2025. 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 Q3 2025, eight out of every ten passengers (84%) on international flights in the five main airports were travelling to or from Europe. The two most popular countries of origin/destination were the United Kingdom and Spain. Outside of Europe, the United States of America was the most popular country of origin/destination in Q3 2025.”