PASSENGER numbers have hit record highs at both Dublin and Cork airports as the summer season kicks off in Ireland.
The airports, which are operated by Daa, each welcomed record numbers of passengers in June, they confirmed this month.
Cork Airport welcomed 355 thousand passengers last month, making it the busiest June in the airport’s 63-year history.
The figures mark a 15 per cent increase on passenger numbers compared with June 2024.
Dublin Airport also recorded its busiest June ever, with a total of 3.54m passengers last month, marking a 5.8 per cent increase on its June 2024 numbers.
“This included 12 days with 120k or more passengers, [of which] there were none in June 2024,” a Daa spokesperson confirmed.
“That included the airport’s busiest day ever on Sunday, June 29, when the tally reached 129k which is 1.8 oercent more than the previous busiest ever day.”
The last week of June, from 23 to 29, also broke records as the new ‘busiest ever’ week for both Cork and Dublin airports – surpassing all previous weekly records.
Cork welcomed 85 thousand passengers that week, a 17 per cent rise on the 2024 figures and Dublin welcomed 858 thousand, up eight per cent on 2024.
The Daa said the record figures were bittersweet for their Dublin offering, where a passenger cap remains in place, limiting the number of passengers allowed to pass through the airport to 32million each year.
“Any other airport in Europe would be delighted to break previous passenger records, knowing the huge economic contribution that comes from welcoming 3.54m visitors to our shores,” the Daa spokesperson said.
“But for Dublin it’s bittersweet: the outdated cap remains a millstone weighing down every airline considering keeping or starting new routes, which has ripple effects for any business investing in Ireland as well as our homegrown industries, particularly tourism.”
They added: “There is one inescapable fact here: we are an island. Connectivity is not a nice to have, it’s a prerequisite for our prosperity, critical to our diaspora, and intrinsic to our international reputation.
"To achieve the local planning authority’s order to reduce passenger numbers to a total of 32 million, we’d have to turn away four million passengers this year – and would be acting illegally in doing so.
“We’d also be hanging an ‘Ireland closed for business sign’, which would have severe implications for the economy.
"Industry research shows that every additional one million passengers results in 750 new aviation jobs.
"The opposite is also true – four million fewer passengers means 3,000 fewer aviation jobs, never mind the knock-on impacts for tourism and businesses across the island.
“The government has confirmed it supports a lifting of the cap and ‘will do whatever we can to achieve this’. We encourage the government to share the solutions under consideration and the timeline to get this done.
“In the meantime, Dublin Airport will continue to do what it does best, welcoming hundreds of thousands of passengers every day to Ireland’s gateway to the world. My thanks to all the hardworking employees who make this a smooth and enjoyable journey for all our passengers.”
See More: Cork Airport, Dublin Airport, Passenger Cap
