Dublin Airport’s share of passenger traffic on and off the island of Ireland fell slightly in the first six months of 2026 to 68.91pc from 69pc, having previously exceeded 70pc in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The proportion of passengers travelling through Shannon (4.5pc) and the two Belfast airports (12.4pc and 4.7pc) increased slightly while Cork’s share dropped. Overall, 25,105,756 passengers passed through the eight Irish airports between January and June 2026, up 5pc on 2025 and 16pc ahead of pre-pandemic levels. Of the traffic on and off the island, 25.6pc travelled to or from England, 16.3pc to or from Spain, 10.8pc to or from the USA, 5.8pc to or from Italy, 4.9pc to or from Germany and 4.7pc to or from Portugal.
Key findings show more than 288,000 additional passengers used Irish airports in Quarter 2 2026 compared with Q2 2025. In Q2 2026, 12.3m passengers passed through the five main Irish airports, compared with 12.0m in the same period in 2025 and 11.2m in Q2 2024. In the first half of 2026, 21.4m passengers passed through the main Irish airports, which was 1.2m more than in the first six months of 2025. Over 82,000 flights were handled by Ireland’s five main airports in Q2 2026, with Dublin handling 82pc of all flights (68,104) while Cork handled 8pc (6,548).
The number of flights to and from Irish airports in the first half of 2026 increased by 8,122 when compared with the same period in 2025.London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin Airport in Q2 2026. 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 2026 was up 11pc when compared with Q2 2025. Almost nine out of every ten passengers (85pc) on international flights in the five main airports were travelling to or from Europe, with England and Spain the two most popular countries of origin or destination. Outside Europe the United States was the most popular.
Dublin airport market share is consistent with the largest airport in similar size countries: 100pc Tallinn, Riga, Luxemburg, Malta, Ljubljana, 90-100pc Budapest, Helsinki, Prague, 80-90pc Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Vienna 70-80pc Bratislava, Stockholm, Vilnius, Larnaka, 68pc: Brussels, Dublin, Also: Heathrow i58pc, Lisbon 55, Paris CDG 42pc, Frankfurt 32, Madrid/Barcelona 25/22pc.
Damien Lenihan, Statistician at the Central Statistics Office, shared “The figures show an increase in international travel during April, May, and June (Q2) 2026. Passengers travelling to and from Ireland were up 2pc when compared with Q2 2025 (12,332,966 vs 12,044,920), and up 10pc when compared with Q2 2024. When compared with Q2 2025, 164,211 more passengers travelled to Ireland in Q2 2026, and this was 531,174 more passengers than in the same period in 2024. In Q2 2026, 6.2m passengers departed from Ireland, which was an increase of 123,835 passengers when compared with the same period in 2025. Looking at the data for the first half of 2026, 21.4m passengers passed through Irish airports which was 1.2m more passengers when compared with the same period in 2025, and 1.9m more than the same six-month period in 2024. The amount of air freight handled by the main airports rose by 11pc to 55,610 tonnes in Q2 2026 when compared with the same period in 2025.”
External link to CSO data here.
