Easter boosts passenger numbers at Dublin & Cork airports
Both Dublin and Cork airports saw an increase in passenger numbers in April, according to airport operator daa, on the back of a busy Easter period.
Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport grew for the first time in April since last Autumn as it marked the first month of 2025 in which passenger numbers at the airport were not artificially constrained due to a limit on the number of slots that airlines could access over the winter period due to the airport's passenger cap.
Dublin Airport passenger numbers rose by 7.5% to 2.9 million last month.
Daa said the High Court has suspended any enforcement of the slots limit pending the outcome of a legal case that has been referred to Europe after a legal challenge by airlines, effectively preventing the cap from being considered by the regulator when assigning slots to airlines.
Meanwhile, passenger numbers at Cork Airport jumped by 27% to 309,000.
Last week daa announced a €200 investment in Cork Airport's Capital Development Plan, a blueprint for large infrastructure projects which will grow the airport's passenger traffic even more over the coming decade.
As well as Easter, daa said that passenger numbers at both airports were boasted by the addition of new routes, tourists coming to Ireland during the school holidays and strong business travel levels.
Dublin Airport operated a total of 21,918 flights in April, while Cork Airport operated 2,141.
The busiest day of April for Dublin Airport was Friday April 18, when a total of 116,313 passengers passed through the airport. For Cork Airport it was Sunday April 27 when 12,485 passengers used the airport.
The five most popular routes from Dublin during April were London Heathrow, Amsterdam, Manchester, London Stansted and Malaga.
The five most popular routes from Shannon were London Heathrow, London Stansted, Manchester, Faro and Malaga.
Kenny Jacobs, CEO of daa, said that April was a strong month at Cork and Dublin airports both in terms of passenger numbers and also operational performance.
Kenny Jacobs, the CEO of daa
"When it comes to growth, Cork Airport is a star performer amongst Irish regional airports and Dublin Airport would be too amongst its peer European airports if it wasn't for the uncertainty of the passenger cap," he said.
"The positive passenger increases at both airports in April was due to strong numbers travelling over the Easter break, which fell much later this year versus 2024, and the addition of great new routes - including Cork-Bilbao and Dublin-Nashville," he added.
Kenny Jacobs said the 7.8% growth at Dublin Airport in April shows the high level of pent-up demand that is out there - both from passengers and airlines - to fly in and out of Dublin.
"The passenger cap is holding Ireland back and making it an outlier amongst other European countries, with figures released this week by Airports Council International showing that passenger traffic in Ireland declined by 0.5% in Q1 2025, while airports in Europe combined saw passenger traffic increase by an average of 4%, " he said.
"This makes no sense when you consider that Ireland is an island nation with a fast-growing population which does - and always will - require good air connectivity," he stated.
"Add in the fact that we're speaking to airlines every week that want to bring new routes and additional frequencies to Dublin Airport and Ireland finds itself in a farcical situation that is leaving the rest of the world scratching its head," he added.
