Passenger arrivals up 0.3% on pre-pandemic March 2019
Key Findings
- More than 1,470,600 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in March 2023.
- This compares with 1,100,700 arrivals in March 2022, an increase of 33.6%.
- Some 1,414,000 passengers arrived by air and 56,600 by sea in March 2023.
- More arrivals came via Great Britain (563,000) than via any other country in March 2023.
Statistician’s Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (28 April 2023) released Air and Sea Travel Statistics for March 2023.
Commenting on the release, Gregg Patrick, Statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division, said: “The latest Air and Sea Travel Statistics show that 1,470,600 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in March 2023. These passengers, comprising foreign visitors arriving in Ireland and Irish overseas travellers returning home, represented a substantial increase on March 2022, when 1,100,700 passengers arrived on overseas routes. This growth is even more substantial when compared with March 2021 when just 61,400 passengers arrived on these routes. Passenger arrivals are slightly higher than pre-pandemic March 2019, when 1,465,900 passengers arrived on overseas routes, representing an increase of 0.3%.
The recovery is seen in both modes of travel (air and sea), although the recovery in air travel is most pronounced, which was up by 33.8% in March 2023 compared with March 2022. The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most (68.0%) in relative terms, increasing from 86,600 in March 2022 to 145,500 in March 2023. Among the continental routes, Spanish routes remain the busiest, with 159,900 passengers arriving on these routes in March 2023, a 31.5% increase compared with March 2022.
However, in overall terms, Great Britain remained the most important departure country for overseas travel to Ireland, with 563,000 passengers arriving on air and sea routes from Great Britain in March 2023, compared with just 426,900 in March 2022.”
Read the full report on the CSO website.
