Passenger arrivals up 3.2% on pre-pandemic May 2019
Key Findings
- More than 1,877,900 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in May 2023.
- This compares with 1,592,400 arrivals in May 2022, an increase of 17.9%.
- Some 1,770,500 passengers arrived by air and 107,400 by sea in May 2023.
- More arrivals came via Great Britain (623,900) than via any other country in May 2023.
Statistician’s Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (28 June 2023) released Air and Sea Travel Statistics for May 2023.
Commenting on the release, Gregg Patrick, Statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division, said: “The latest Air and Sea Travel Statistics show that 1,877,900 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in May 2023. These passengers, comprising foreign visitors arriving in Ireland and Irish overseas travellers returning home, represented a substantial increase on May 2022, when 1,592,400 passengers arrived on overseas routes. This growth is even more substantial when compared with May 2021 when just 85,400 passengers arrived on these routes. Passenger arrivals are higher than pre-pandemic May 2019, when 1,818,900 passengers arrived on overseas routes, representing an increase of 3.2%.
The recovery is seen in both modes of travel (air and sea), although the recovery in air travel is most pronounced, as it was up by 17.9% in May 2023 compared with May 2022. The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most (27.3%) in relative terms, increasing from 171,300 in May 2022 to 218,000 in May 2023. Among the continental routes, Spanish routes remain the busiest, with 264,900 passengers arriving on these routes in May 2023, up 20.3% on May 2022.
However, in overall terms, Great Britain remained the most important departure country for overseas travel to Ireland, with 623,900 passengers arriving on air and sea routes from Great Britain in May 2023, compared with just 536,200 in May 2022.”
Read the full report on the CSO website.
