Almost 3.5 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in May, an increase of 2.7% on the same month last year, new figures show today.
Dublin Airport said May was consistently busy with 28 of the 31 days seeing more than 100,000 passengers using the airport, with more than 120,000 travelling through on no fewer than eight days.
The busiest day of the month was Sunday 24 May, when Dublin Airport saw a total of 127,761 passengers.
A total of 24,300 flights in and out of the airport were recorded in May.
Meanwhile, a total of 14.3 million passengers have passed through Dublin Airport for the first five months of the year, up 7% on the same time last year.
The airport noted that numbers were boosted in May by the start of the summer holiday season, the busy May bank holiday weekend and the start of the mass exodus of football fans from around the UK and Europe for the football World Cup in North America.
Travel between Dublin and North America in May was 13% higher year-on-year, with strong numbers of visitors also arriving into Ireland from the US and Canada.
The most popular destinations for departing passengers in the month were London Heathrow, Amsterdam, Manchester, Malaga and London Gatwick.
Gary McLean, Managing Director of Dublin Airport, said the start of the busy summer season seems to be getting earlier every year, and this was the airport’s busiest May on record, with an additional 93,000 passengers using our airport this May compared to the same month last year.
“Demand to fly in and out of Dublin Airport is very high and we’re expecting passenger numbers to come in around 2% higher this summer than last year’s record levels,” Mr McLean said.
He said that June is set to be another busy month as the airport sees many thousands of tourists to the island of Ireland from all around the world, while the summer holiday season ramps up for residents of Ireland seeking their annual fix of warm and sunny weather overseas.
“While the Irish team isn’t at the men’s football World Cup, we’re already seeing lots of Scottish, English, French, Dutch, Belgian and German jerseys in the terminals as they avail of Dublin Airport’s extensive route network and US pre-clearance facility, to reach North America to cheer their countries on at the tournament,” he said.
“In total, we expect up to 10,000 fans to travel through Dublin Airport in June on their way to the World Cup,” he added.