More than 800,000 additional passengers used Irish airports in Q2 2025
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (16 September 2025) published Aviation Statistics for Quarter 2 (Q2) 2025. Passenger numbers are received for the five main airports: Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry.
Key Findings
- More than 800,000 additional passengers used Irish airports in Quarter 2 (Q2) 2025 when compared with Q2 2024.
- In Q2 2025, 12.0 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports, compared with 11.2 million passengers in the same period in 2024 and 10.7 million in Q2 2023.
- In the first half of 2025, 20.3 million passengers passed through the main Irish airports, which was almost 800,000 more people than in the first six months of 2024.
- Over 81,000 flights were handled by Ireland’s five main airports in Q2 2025, with Dublin handling 83% of all flights (67,217), while Cork handled 8% of all flights (6,761).The number of flights to and from Irish airports in the first half of 2025 increased by 4,341 when compared with the same period in 2024 (139,137 vs 134,789).
- London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in Q2 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 Q2 2025 was up 4% when compared with Q2 2024.
Commenting on the release, Damien Lenihan, Statistician, said:
“The figures show an increase in international travel during April, May, and June (Q2) 2025. Passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up by 7% when compared with Q2 2024 (12,042,620 vs 11,231,664), and up by 12% when compared with Q2 2023.
When compared with Q2 2024, 366,977 more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q2 2025 and this was 624,425 more passengers than in the same period in 2023.“
In Q2 2025, 6.1 million passengers departed from Ireland, which was an increase of 443,979 when compared with the same period in 2024.
Looking at the data for the first half of 2025, 20.3 million passengers passed through Irish airports which was almost 800,000 more passengers when compared with the same period in 2024, and 1.9 million more than the same six-month period in 2023.
The amount of air freight handled by the main airports rose by 4% to 49,544 tonnes in Q2 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 Q2 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 Q2 2025, almost nine out of every ten passengers (85%) 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 Q2 2025.”
