Dublin Airport Welcomes Record-Breaking Year

Dublin Airport has said it served almost 28 million passengers in 2016. Numbers increased by 11% to 27.9 million passengers, while the airport also welcomed growth across its short-haul and long-haul networks.

Short-haul traffic increased by 11% in 2016 with almost 24.3 million passengers taking short-haul flights to and from Dublin. Long-haul passenger numbers surged by 12% to more than 3.6 million.

Last year's growth in passenger numbers is said to be as a result of expansion from almost all of the airport's major airline customers. Passenger traffic to and from continental Europe, which is Dublin Airport's largest market segment, increased by 11% to a 14.2 million; while UK traffic increased by 12% to 9.9 million.

Transatlantic traffic was the fastest-growing segment of the market last year with 2.9 million passengers travelling between Dublin and North America (a 16% increase on the previous year). Passenger traffic to other destinations, mainly the Middle East and Africa, fell by 3% to 781,000 during 2016, due largely to a reduction in capacity.

In total, 19 new routes were introduced throughout the year and additional capacity was added on 31 existing services through extra flights or the use of larger aircraft. Three new airlines also commenced operations on the Dublin site last year – Aegean Airlines, Cobalt, and Flyone. In addition, KLM returned after 50 years.

Vincent Harrison, Managing Director, Dublin Airport, said: "Dublin Airport had a very strong performance in 2016. We had double digit growth across all of our largest market segments and welcomed new routes and new airline customers.

"The millions of extra passengers who passed through Dublin Airport in 2016 helped deliver a record year for Irish tourism. Significant additional connectivity at the airport also helps to boost business between Ireland and its trading partners and underpins increased foreign direct investment in Ireland."

(JP)