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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
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information@cso.ie (+353) 21 453 5000 On-line ISSN 2009-7581
CSO statistical release, , 11am

Aviation Statistics

Quarter 3 2019

Number of passengers handled by main Irish airports
 Quarter 3 January to September
 201812019% change201812019% change
Passengers11,131,10111,597,347+4.2 28,102,08729,512,466+5.0
1 Minor revisions to 2018 data

Increase of 4.2% in number of passengers handled by main Irish airports in Quarter 3 2019

Figure 1 Passenger numbers handled by main Irish airports
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In the third quarter of 2019, almost 11.6 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports, an increase of 4.2% over the same period in 2018. See table 1.

Passenger numbers increased in Cork, Dublin, Kerry and Knock, while passenger numbers decreased in Shannon. Dublin airport accounted for 85.0% of all air passengers handled in the third quarter of 2019.

In the first nine months of 2019, 29.5 million passengers travelled through the main Irish airports, an increase of 5.0% compared with the same period in 2018.

The results also show that:

  • Almost 79,000 flights were handled by Ireland's five main airports in the third quarter of 2019. Dublin accounted for 82.7% of all flights (65,178) while Cork handled 8.3% of all flights (6,535). See table 3.
  • London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick and Amsterdam-Schiphol were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in the third quarter of 2019. For Cork airport, the top three routes were London-Heathrow, London-Stansted and Faro. The top route for Shannon was London-Heathrow, the top route for Knock was London-Stansted and the top route for Kerry was London-Luton. See tables 4A to 4E.
  • In the third quarter of 2019, 84.4% of passengers 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 third quarter of 2019. See table 5.
  • Ireland's main airports handled a total of 37,677 tonnes of freight in the third quarter of 2019, the vast majority (95.0%) of which was international freight. See table 6.
  • When seasonally adjusted, there was an increase in the number of passengers (+0.6%) that passed through the main airports in Quarter 3 of 2019 compared with Quarter 2 of 2019. See table 8.
Table 1: Number of passengers1 handled by main airports, Quarter 3 2017-2019
AirportQuarter 3January to September
2017201822019% change 2018-2019 2017201822019% change 2018-2019
Dublin8,893,9419,430,9819,852,446+4.522,649,27724,026,70725,290,269+5.3
Cork752,138773,012832,198+7.71,808,0871,867,2732,035,043+9.0
Shannon531,272561,411536,697-4.41,257,9961,324,6491,275,006-3.7
Knock244,849251,687259,988+3.3587,725600,392624,990+4.1
Kerry102,166114,010116,018+1.8 259,736283,066287,158+1.4
Total10,524,36611,131,10111,597,347+4.2 26,562,82128,102,08729,512,466+5.0
1 Passenger numbers refer to commercial passengers only. Transit passengers are included and are counted twice (i.e. both as arriving and departing passengers).
2 Minor revisions to 2018 data
Table 2: Passenger1 numbers classified by arrivals and departures handled by main airports
   Number
AirportQ3 2017Q3 20182Q3 2019
Arrivals   
Cork381,534391,827422,808
Dublin4,481,0864,755,9334,963,921
Kerry51,21057,24557,889
Knock122,722127,289130,520
Shannon262,580278,180267,060
Total arrivals5,299,1325,610,4745,842,198
   
Departures   
Cork370,604381,185409,390
Dublin4,412,8554,675,0484,888,525
Kerry50,95656,76558,129
Knock122,127124,398129,468
Shannon268,692283,231269,637
Total departures5,225,2345,520,6275,755,149
   
All   
Cork752,138773,012832,198
Dublin8,893,9419,430,9819,852,446
Kerry102,166114,010116,018
Knock244,849251,687259,988
Shannon531,272561,411536,697
Total passengers10,524,36611,131,10111,597,347
1 Passenger numbers refer to commercial passengers only. Transit passengers are included and are counted twice (i.e. both as arriving and departing passengers).
2 Minor revisions to 2018 data
Table 3: Number of flights classified by arrivals and departures handled by main airports, Quarter 3 2019
      Number
FlightsCorkDublinKerryKnockShannonTotal
Arrivals3,27132,5945059562,08039,406
Departures3,26432,5845079412,09439,390
All flights6,53565,1781,0121,8974,17478,796
Table 4A: Top 10 arrivals and departures for Dublin airport by number of passengers, Quarter 3 2019
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Heathrow247,899248,686496,585
London - Gatwick170,930165,073336,003
Amsterdam - Schiphol 159,229156,159315,388
Manchester122,625123,273245,898
London - Stansted121,862118,534240,396
Malaga121,894118,300240,194
Birmingham117,485116,261233,746
Faro115,341110,420225,761
Frankfurt - Main110,749110,382221,131
Paris - Charles De Gaulle95,96494,272190,236
Table 4B: Top 10 arrivals and departures for Cork airport by number of passengers, Quarter 3 2019
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Heathrow51,32551,336102,661
London - Stansted47,09846,06493,162
Faro32,33230,55262,884
Malaga31,49929,61861,117
Amsterdam - Schiphol 19,83219,31839,150
Paris - Charles De Gaulle19,65619,22338,879
London - Gatwick16,48016,47832,958
Lanzarote15,82515,48531,310
Palma De Mallorca15,96214,70930,671
London - Luton15,65614,99830,654
Table 4C: Top 10 arrivals and departures for Shannon airport by number of passengers, Quarter 3 2019
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Heathrow37,68038,62576,305
New York - John F Kennedy25,12227,86752,989
London - Stansted26,69925,80352,502
London - Gatwick16,28616,41932,705
Boston - Logan15,22915,63530,864
Faro15,44913,76529,214
Newark13,54015,57729,117
Philadelphia12,35914,32326,682
Malaga13,24112,64925,890
Manchester10,98811,07822,066
Table 4D: Top 5 arrivals and departures for Knock airport by number of passengers, Quarter 3 2019
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Stansted20,84222,29443,136
London - Luton20,23720,09440,331
London - Gatwick12,37611,69824,074
Liverpool - John Lennon10,49410,86421,358
East Midlands10,45610,44720,903
Table 4E: Top 5 arrivals and departures for Kerry airport by number of passengers, Quarter 3 2019
   Number
 ArrivalsDeparturesTotal
London - Luton15,42515,56530,990
London - Stansted11,17211,07922,251
Frankfurt - Hahn8,9938,74717,740
Dublin8,1848,91317,097
Alicante4,6354,6579,292
Table 5: Number of passengers classified by country of flight stage origin and destination handled by main airports, Quarter 3 2019
ContinentCountryArrivalsDeparturesTotal
EuropeAustria30,30629,80060,106
 Belgium61,22159,928121,149
 Bulgaria25,25922,83448,093
 Croatia67,61361,861129,474
 Czech Republic24,80724,73949,546
 Denmark38,13337,21675,349
 Finland16,49917,02933,528
 France340,115329,940670,055
 Germany366,369360,372726,741
 Greece54,57250,899105,471
 Hungary37,43636,03073,466
 Iceland17,95319,31637,269
 Italy286,932277,671564,603
 Latvia21,25920,79942,058
 Lithuania23,37823,36346,741
 Netherlands196,429191,966388,395
 Norway21,39720,26241,659
 Poland131,777128,928260,705
 Portugal274,912264,653539,565
 Romania38,13735,78873,925
 Slovakia16,78316,38033,163
 Spain840,183812,2061,652,389
 Sweden27,94728,19056,137
 Switzerland71,19570,527141,722
 Turkey48,37947,57795,956
 UK - England1,558,6121,548,9783,107,590
 UK - Northern Ireland395-395
 UK - Scotland190,800187,025377,825
 UK - Wales15,41414,88830,302
 UK - Other9,6729,62519,297
 Total UK1,774,8931,760,5163,535,409
 Other 74,46871,808146,276
 Total Europe4,928,3524,820,5989,748,950
   
North AmericaCanada113,298114,596227,894
USA615,690644,0541,259,744
Other1,4941,1472,641
Total North America730,482759,7971,490,279
   
AfricaTotal Africa6,2745,86612,140
   
AsiaUnited Arab Emirates99,33796,445195,782
Other51,20146,78797,988
Total Asia150,538143,232293,770
   
Other1Total other1,9121,8893,801
   
All continents2 5,817,5585,731,38211,548,940
1 Due to residual coding errors some passengers cannot be assigned a country of flight origin/destination.
2 This figure refers to passengers on international flights only and excludes passengers on domestic flights.
Table 6: Air freight classified by national and international traffic handled by main airports, Quarter 3 2019
     Tonnes
TrafficCorkDublinKnockShannonTotal
National freight traffic01,24506551,901
International freight traffic1433,40342,35535,776
All freight1434,64943,01137,677
Table 7: Air freight classified by arrivals and departures handled by main airports, Quarter 3 2019
     Tonnes
TrafficCorkDublinKnockShannonTotal
Arrivals - freight318,14941,53619,692
Departures - freight1116,49901,47517,985
All freight1434,64943,01137,677
Table 8: Seasonally adjusted number of passengers handled by main airports
AirportQ3 2018Q2 2019Q3 2019% change Q2 2019-Q3 2019
Dublin7,919,9118,198,8248,250,781+0.6
Cork606,553644,058650,854+1.1
Shannon421,256403,919397,628-1.6
Knock188,316195,860199,287+1.7
Kerry91,50990,95393,382+2.7
Total passengers9,227,5459,533,6149,591,932+0.6

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 2018, the top five airports represented 99.8% 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.

Seasonal adjustment

Seasonal adjustment for passenger numbers is conducted using a direct seasonal adjustment approach. However, the overall passenger totals are estimated using the indirect approach, i.e. the ‘Total passengers’ is derived by adding the monthly seasonally adjusted passenger numbers for each airport. The main reason for adopting the indirect approach is to attribute the monthly and annual changes in passenger numbers to each airport. Seasonal adjustment models are developed for each airport based on unadjusted data spanning from January 2012 to the current period. These models are reviewed on an annual basis; however seasonal factors are updated each quarter.

The adjustments are completed by applying the X-13-ARIMA model, developed by the U.S. Census Bureau to the unadjusted data.  This methodology estimates seasonal factors while also taking into consideration factors that impact on the quality of the seasonal adjustment such as:

• Calendar effects, e.g. the timing of Easter,

• Outliers, temporary changes and level shifts in the series. 

For additional information on the use of X-13-ARIMA see https://www.census.gov/srd/www/winx13/

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 three regional airports in Ireland are Donegal, 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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