Dublin Airport is poised to rise above the 30m passenger mark this year after falling just short, hitting the 29.6m point last year. Just under 2m passengers travelled through Dublin Airport this January, a 6pc increase on 2017.
This year will also see the arrival of three new airlines to the capital. Iceland Air will fly 6w to Reykjavik from May, Cathay Pacific will start a 4w service direct to Hong Kong from June and Croatia Airlines will operate a 2w service to Zagreb from May to October. Hainan Airlines has also applied for a licene to operate services between Dublin/Edinburgh and Beijing, while Aer Lingus is tipped to add Denver to its growing transatlantic network.
Vincent Harrison, Managing Director of Dublin Airport Authority
Traffic to Britain mirrored the rise at Cork Airport, which released its January figures last week. Both Dublin and Cork saw a 1pc rise, and almost 747,000 passengers travelled on routes between Dublin and Britain during the month.
Passenger volumes to and from North America continued to grow – up 12pc – with almost 185,000 passengers taking transatlantic flights to and from Dublin in January. The sharpest rise was in the international traffic category, principally to the Middle East and Africa. It increased by 13pc, with more than 81,300 passengers travelling.
The number of passengers using Dublin Airport as a hub to connect to another destination increased again – this time by 10pc – with almost 87,000 passengers connecting last month.
Almost 6,000 passengers travelled on domestic routes last month, which was a 5pc increase on January last year.
