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For more information on this release:
E-mail: transport@cso.ie Noreen Dorgan +353 21 453 5260 Brendan Curtin +353 21 453 5120
For general information on CSO statistics:
information@cso.ie (+353) 21 453 5000 On-line ISSN 2009-7581
CSO statistical release, , 11am

Aviation Statistics

Quarter 1 2017

Number of passengers handled by main Irish airports, Quarter 1 2015-2017
 Q1 2015Q1 2016Q1 2017% change Q1 2016-2017
Total passengers5,541,3216,419,0476,678,651+4.0

Increase of 4.0% in number of passengers handled by main Irish airports in Quarter 1 2017

Figure 1: Passenger numbers handled by main Irish airports
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In the first quarter of 2017, almost 6.7 million passengers passed through the five main airports, an increase of 4.0% over the same period in 2016. See Table 1.

Passenger numbers increased in Dublin, Knock and Kerry airports, while passenger numbers decreased in Cork and Shannon. Dublin airport accounted for 86.8% of all air passengers in the first quarter of 2017.

The results also show that:

  • More than 53,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in the first quarter of 2017. Dublin accounted for 84.4% of all flights (45,013) while Cork handled 7.4% of all flights (3,942). See Table 3.
  • London- Heathrow, London-Gatwick and Amsterdam were the most popular routes for passengers for Dublin airport in the first quarter of 2017. In Cork airport, the top three routes were London-Heathrow, London-Stansted and Amsterdam. The top route for Shannon was London-Heathrow, the top route for Knock was London-Stansted while the top route for Kerry was London-Luton. See Tables 4A to 4E.
  • In the first quarter of 2017, almost nine out of every ten passengers (89.4%) 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 the first quarter of 2017. See Table 5.
  • Ireland's main airports handled a total of 35,509 tonnes of freight in the first quarter of 2017, the vast majority (93.9%) of which was international freight. See Table 6.
Table 1: Number of passengers handled by main airports, Quarter 1 2015-2017
AirportQ1 2015Q1 2016Q1 2017% change Q1 2016-2017
Dublin4,740,9245,534,9795,795,184+4.7
Cork379,553419,334418,459-0.2
Shannon260,625282,929271,753-4.0
Knock113,413123,034134,221+9.1
Kerry46,80658,77159,034+0.4
Total passengers5,541,3216,419,0476,678,651+4.0
Table 2: Passenger numbers classified by arrivals and departures handled by main airports, Quarter 1 2017
 Number
AirportQ1 2017
Arrivals 
Cork206,896
Dublin2,914,949
Kerry28,846
Knock66,141
Shannon135,469
Total arrivals3,352,301
 
Departures 
Cork211,563
Dublin2,880,235
Kerry30,188
Knock68,080
Shannon136,284
Total departures3,326,350
 
All 
Cork418,459
Dublin5,795,184
Kerry59,034
Knock134,221
Shannon271,753
Total passengers6,678,651
Table 3: Number of flights classified by arrivals and departures handled by main airports, Quarter 1 2017
      Number
FlightsCorkDublinKerryKnockShannonTotal
Arrivals1,97122,5443385831,27726,713
Departures1,97122,4693375661,25926,602
All flights3,94245,0136751,1492,53653,315
Table 4A: Top 10 arrivals and departures for Dublin airport by number of passengers, Quarter 1 2017
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Heathrow189,758194,240383,998
London - Gatwick174,770170,402345,172
Amsterdam - Schiphol 126,923123,725250,648
Manchester121,728124,032245,760
Birmingham114,286116,176230,462
London - Stansted104,917103,135208,052
Paris - Charles De Gaulle85,42482,431167,855
Edinburgh69,84369,356139,199
Barcelona61,87761,051122,928
New York - John F Kennedy58,11558,301116,416
Table 4B: Top 10 arrivals and departures for Cork airport by number of passengers, Quarter 1 2017
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Heathrow42,44844,37286,820
London - Stansted39,39939,78579,184
Amsterdam - Schiphol 17,96218,77136,733
London - Gatwick15,07414,44529,519
Manchester10,86011,78622,646
Lanzarote10,59810,37920,977
Paris - Charles De Gaulle9,9239,82019,743
Liverpool - John Lennon9,8529,77219,624
Malaga8,9528,83217,784
Birmingham8,4189,24617,664
Table 4C: Top 10 arrivals and departures for Shannon airport by number of passengers, Quarter 1 2017
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Heathrow27,69629,41657,112
London - Stansted24,31123,21747,528
London - Gatwick12,59312,35424,947
Newark9,4369,70419,140
Manchester9,2979,59918,896
Boston - Logan6,7647,13413,898
Krakow4,7584,6029,360
Wroclaw - Strachowice4,7504,5979,347
Warsaw Modlin4,8314,4269,257
Lanzarote4,2454,2628,507
Table 4D: Top 5 arrivals and departures for Knock airport by number of passengers, Quarter 1 2017
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Stansted16,78618,67835,464
London - Luton12,66812,80725,475
Liverpool - John Lennon10,67611,45722,133
East Midlands9,7597,39817,157
London - Gatwick7,1977,61514,812
Table 4E: Top 3 arrivals and departures for Kerry airport by number of passengers, Quarter 1 2017
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Luton11,95512,10824,063
London - Stansted7,4017,90415,305
Dublin4,7045,46310,167
Table 5: Number of passengers classified by country of flight stage origin and destination handled by main airports, Quarter 1 2017
ContinentCountryArrivalsDeparturesTotal
EuropeAustria20,77618,93839,714
 Belgium59,97858,880118,858
 Czech Republic24,05823,76247,820
 Denmark31,27830,29661,574
 France189,812182,302372,114
 Germany191,764183,711375,475
 Hungary29,04727,81056,857
 Italy115,515112,439227,954
 Latvia14,40714,21828,625
 Lithuania19,89319,72439,617
 Netherlands159,317156,370315,687
 Norway9,1639,85819,021
 Poland123,559115,406238,965
 Portugal54,55256,500111,052
 Spain312,716305,642618,358
 Sweden10,90711,23422,141
 Switzerland42,51242,91785,429
 Turkey14,13714,44228,579
 UK - England1,309,8151,327,0132,636,828
 UK - Northern Ireland341145
 UK - Scotland143,219145,823289,042
 UK - Wales14,47014,72829,198
 UK - Other4,3334,4958,828
 Total UK1,471,8711,492,0702,963,941
 Other 90,22884,963175,191
 Total Europe2,985,4902,961,4825,946,972
   
North AmericaCanada15,86117,25033,111
USA234,944238,825473,769
Other24270294
Total North America250,829256,345507,174
   
AfricaTotal Africa13,30911,39724,706
   
AsiaUnited Arab Emirates86,02381,194167,217
Other213
Total Asia86,02581,195167,220
   
Other1Total other2,2301,8724,102
   
All continents2 3,337,8833,312,2916,650,174
1 Due to residual coding errors some passengers cannot be assigned a country of flight origin/destination.
2 This figure refers to international passengers only and excludes domestic passenger numbers.
Table 6: Air freight classified by national and international traffic handled by main airports, Quarter 1 2017
     Tonnes
TrafficCorkDublinKnockShannonTotal
National freight traffic01,10001,0732,174
International freight traffic631,28652,03833,336
All freight632,38753,11235,509
Table 7: Air freight classified by arrivals and departures handled by main airports, Quarter 1 2017
     Tonnes
TrafficCorkDublinKnockShannonTotal
Arrivals - freight516,61551,51518,139
Departures - freight115,77201,59717,370
All freight632,38753,11235,509

Background Notes

Introduction

Statistics on Aviation are collected under Statutory Instrument (S.I.) No. 91 of 2014 - Statistics (carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air) Order 2013.

The data in this release provides details on the number of passengers classified by arrivals and departures, and by reference to national and international traffic; the number of flights by arrivals and departures and information on air freight and mail (in tonnes).  The release also highlights the top routes for each of the five main airports: Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry. In 2016, the top five airports represented 99.7% of all air passengers.

Data sources

Aviation statistics are compiled from data supplied by all Irish airports. The following Irish airports provide data to the Central Statistics Office: Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Kerry, Knock, Waterford, Connemara, Donegal and Inishmore. Galway and Sligo airports ceased operations in 2011. There have been no commercial flights in Waterford Airport since June 2016. Data for the five main airports is supplied on a monthly basis. Data for regional airports is supplied annually to the Central Statistics Office.

Definitions

Main airport: A main airport is defined as an airport through which in excess of 150,000 passengers fly per annum. The five main airports in Ireland are Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry.

Regional airport: A regional airport is defined as an airport through which less than 150,000 passengers fly per annum. The four regional airports in Ireland are Donegal, Waterford, Connemara and Inishmore.

Scheduled flight: The term 'scheduled' in this release, refers to a commercial air service operated according to a published timetable, or with such a regular frequency that it constitutes an easily recognisable systematic series of flights.

Non-scheduled flight: The term 'non-scheduled' in this release, refers to a commercial air service other than scheduled air service e.g. chartered or private aircraft flights.

Direct transit passengers: These are passengers who, following a short stop, continue their journey on the same aircraft with the same flight number as the flight on which they arrived. These passengers are en route to another destination and generally do not disembark from their aircraft.

Transfer passengers: Transfer passengers or ‘connecting passengers’ are defined as passengers who make a stop at an airport without any purpose other than to board another aircraft to reach another destination. Unlike transit passengers, transfer passengers disembark the aircraft and pass through the airport en route to their connecting flight.

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