Thursday, April 4: A total of 2.9 million passengers travelled to and from Ireland’s two busiest airports during the month of March, according to figures released today by airport operator, daa.

Across the month, the number of passengers travelling through Dublin Airport was 9% higher than the same month last year. At Cork Airport, passenger traffic increased by 25% compared to March 2023.

St. Patrick’s Day and the start of the Easter school holidays played a role in the strong passenger traffic last month. As the national airport serving the island of Ireland, hundreds of thousands of passengers travelled into Dublin Airport to celebrate the national holiday. Tens of thousands also flew into Cork Airport to celebrate the festivities and to explore all the scenic south of Ireland has to offer. Easter was earlier this year and that resulted in thousands heading off on well-deserved Easter breaks and short holidays. March also saw the start of new transatlantic services from Dublin to New York (JFK) and Boston with JetBlue.

Commenting on the March passenger traffic statistics, daa CEO, Kenny Jacobs said:

“March was a really busy month at both Dublin and Cork Airports. It was one of the wettest months on record and as a result, many opted to escape the weather here to travel to warmer, sunnier destinations. At Dublin Airport, last month’s numbers were boosted by some high-profile sporting events that took place in the Aviva, including the Six Nations clash against Scotland and the soccer friendlies against Switzerland and Belgium. Plenty of fans and punters also flew out to the Ireland v England rugby game in Twickenham and the Cheltenham Racing Festival.” 

"Cork Airport had another fantastic month, with passenger numbers up 25% on March last year. A very extensive summer schedule has just started at Cork Airport, with a new Ryanair service to Brussels starting last weekend. Other new Ryanair services to Rhodes and Zadar will take off in June and Air France will add additional capacity on their key hub connections to Paris Charles de Gaulle for July and August,” Kenny Jacobs added.