Overseas passengers still lagging behind pre-pandemic numbers

The number of overseas passengers arriving in Ireland is still lagging behind pre-pandemic numbers, with 7.7% fewer people travelling to the Republic, figures show.

More than 1,726,100 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in September.

Figures published by the Central Statistic Office show that passenger arrivals remain significantly lower than those seen in September 2019, when 1,871,100 passengers arrived on overseas routes.

However, last month’s traveller numbers saw more than a two-fold increase compared with September 2021 figures, when there were 810,100 arrivals.

Of the 1,726,100 passengers arriving in Ireland in September, 94.3% (1,626,800) arrived by air and 5.7% (99,200) arrived by sea, CSO Air and Sea Travel Statistics show.

This means the share of sea travel has returned to its September 2019 pre-pandemic level when 5.7% of passengers also arrived by sea.

More arrivals came via Great Britain, with 525,200 passengers, than via any other country last month.

Gregg Patrick, statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division, said: “The (1,726,100) passengers, comprising foreign visitors arriving in Ireland and Irish overseas travellers returning home, represent a very substantial increase on September 2021, when 810,100 passengers arrived on overseas routes.

“The increase is even more substantial when compared with September 2020 when just 254,400 passengers arrived on these routes.

“However, passenger arrivals remain significantly lower (7.7%) than pre-pandemic September 2019, when 1,871,100 passengers arrived on overseas routes.

“The recovery is seen in both modes of travel, air and sea, although the recovery in air travel is most pronounced as it has more than doubled when compared with September 2021.

“The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most in relative terms with five passengers arriving on transatlantic routes in September 2022 for every one passenger in September 2021.”

Among the continental routes, Spanish routes were the busiest, with 250,200 passengers arriving on these routes, an almost two-fold increase compared to September 2021.

Other important gateways for arrivals included the United States, France and Italy.

When we compare these passenger flows with September 2019, passenger arrivals embarking from Spain were 2.3% higher than pre-pandemic and arrivals embarking from France and Italy increased by 2.7% and 11.2% respectively.

However, passenger arrivals embarking from the United States decreased by 13.6% compared with September 2019.

In overall terms, Great Britain remained the most important departure country for overseas travel to Ireland, with 525,200 passengers arriving by air and sea routes from Great Britain, compared to just 252,500 in September 2021.

More than one-tenth of passenger arrivals (206,300) came or returned to Ireland on transatlantic routes, embarking in the United States or Canada.

Nearly four in every 100 passenger arrivals (66,600) came or returned to Ireland on other routes, embarking in Africa or Asia.