Just over 28.1 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in 2022, representing a 231% increase in 2021 activity and an 85% recovery of 2019 levels.
The revival in passenger numbers following the Covid-19 pandemic continued to accelerate as the year progressed, with passenger levels in the final three months of 2022 totalling 7.1 million – the equivalent to 96% of numbers in the same period of 2019.
During the month of December 2022 alone, a total of 2.2 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport – an increase of 1 million passengers compared to 2021 and 95% of the passenger numbers seen pre-pandemic in December 2019.
According to dad’s new CEO, Kenny Jacobs, the airport operator of Dublin Airport: “Following two years of Covid disruption, 2022 was the year in which international travel came back very strong. When you consider that passenger numbers during the first two months of 2022 were very low due to uncertainty around the Omicron variant, the recovery in passenger numbers from March onwards was way beyond the expectations of even the most optimistic of travel forecasters.
“This resurgence in travel has posed challenges for Dublin Airport and airports all around the world. I’d like to pay tribute to the incredible team there which has worked tirelessly to facilitate more than 28 million journeys over the past 12 months. Their hard work over the Christmas period – the busiest in three years – saw 93% of passengers pass through security screening in under 20 minutes, with 99% through in under 30 minutes. In the year ahead, we are determined to maintain this security performance and make further improvements to the standards at Dublin Airport so that the travelling public gets the service they expect.”
Yearly Passenger Numbers
Just over 13 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in the five months of August, September, October, November and December which equates to almost half of the total traffic seen during the year.
26.5 million passengers either started or ended their journey through Dublin Airport while 1.33 million of the overall number used the airport as a transfer hub last year. When compared to 2021 figures, short-haul traffic increased by 216% to 23.9 million, while long-haul passenger numbers increased by 366% to almost 4.2 million. This was a decrease of -19% when compared to 2019 passenger figures for the long haul and a -14% decrease for the short haul.
During 2022, passenger numbers to and from Continental Europe increased 2021 levels by 198% to 15.9 million.
The number of passengers travelling to and from Dublin Airport and the UK decreased by -24% vs 2019 and increased by 257% vs 2021 to 7.8 million.
Transatlantic traffic increased by 383% compared to 2021, which was down -17% compared to 2019. Traffic to and from Continental Europe was down by -8%, while passengers travelling from Dublin Airport to and from the UK were down by -24%.
Passenger numbers on flights to and from other international destinations, which includes flights to the Middle East, increased by 302% compared with 2021. The number of people taking domestic flights increased by 237% compared to 2021 and was up by 23% when compared with 2019.
December 2022 Passenger Numbers
In December, passenger volumes to and from Continental Europe saw an increase of 460,000 versus the same month last year. That number was up by +1% when compared with December 2019.
UK traffic reached almost 700,000 in December – an increase of around 350,000 in the same month last year and around 85% of December 2019 traffic.
Passenger volumes to and from North America were at 96% versus December 2019, as around 257,000 passengers travelled on transatlantic routes. Dublin Airport saw an increase of around 140,000 passengers travelling to and from North America in December 2022 versus the same period last year.
Other International passenger traffic totalled around 80,000, which was 47,000 more than travelled in December 2021, and 7,000 higher than in 2019.
Domestic passengers increased by 29% in December 2022 versus December 2019 to around 11,000. This was almost double the number of domestic passengers seen in December 2021.
