Cork Airport recorded its busiest year on record in 2025 with 3.46 million passengers. Passenger traffic increased thirteen per cent compared to 2024, marking the third consecutive year of double-digit growth.
The previous busiest year in the history of Cork airport was 2008 with 3,258,639 passengers. The Mitchelstown bypass opened on May 25 2009, completing the motorway from Cork to Dublin.
Numbers rose sharply on routes to English provincial cities including Bristol by thirty-seven per cent, Liverpool by thirty-one per cent, and Manchester by twenty-seven per cent. Traffic to Germany grew sixty-one per cent, to Belgium twenty-nine per cent, and to Switzerland twenty-seven per cent. Leisure markets performed strongly with thirty-two per cent more passengers to Spain and twenty per cent to Portugal.
New routes added in 2025 included Bilbao, Bordeaux, Izmir, Prague, and Geneva operated by Aer Lingus and SunExpress. Summer 2026 will feature new services to Nice, Santiago de Compostela, and Antalya. Hub connectivity expanded with sixty per cent more seats to Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, and Zurich. Cork Airport received the title of Europe’s Best Airport under five million passengers from Airports Council International Europe for the third time in a decade.
Infrastructure projects progressed on time and on budget, including a new mezzanine floor and security screening area due for completion in December 2026, plus extended car parking and Ireland’s largest solar carport.
Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director at Cork Airport shared “The team at Cork Airport is delighted with the growth and success delivered in 2025. Our industry representative body recognised Cork Airport as Europe’s best regional airport and passengers who used us for the first time complimented us on the ease and friendliness of the airport experience. In 2026, with the support of daa Group, we will be expanding our facilities and delivering on our capital development programme while delivering the same exceptional service our passengers love, and we look forward to another tremendous year in Cork Airport’s history.”
