A special air traffic control team are getting ready to make sure Santa gets to every home in Ireland this year as he flies through Irish airspace on Christmas Eve.
The Irish Aviation Authority promised to make sure Rudolf and the other reindeer can travel safely across the sky, as quickly as possible, so that Santa can get to every house on time.
Santa’s sleigh is at the North Pole right now, ready to take off for Ireland
The airports will be very quiet on Christmas Day, so it makes it easier for Santa to get around. However, it’s business as normal on St Stephen’s Day, once Santa is back safely in the North Pole.
With thousands of people flying to Ireland to be with their loved ones this week, the Authority’s air traffic control teams in Dublin, Shannon and Cork have been making sure that the flights arriving and taking off from these airports do so safely. The air traffic controllers also guide the 1,200 aircraft traveling from USA across the Atlantic to destinations in Europe and Asia.
The IAA have produced a special video to mark the Christmas period which is available to view here.
It has been a very busy year for our airports in 2017, and the air traffic control team cleared 220,000 aircraft to take off or land at Dublin Airport alone. That’s an aircraft taking off or landing every 90 seconds.
