May 2020 saw an ‘extraordinary collapse’ in overseas travel to and from Ireland as the effects of the COVID-19 crisis continued, CSO statistics show.

There were just 28,300 arrivals in May 2020 and 36,300 departures.

This compares with monthly travel of more than 1.8 million in each direction in May 2019, an annual fall of 98%.

Arrivals by sea

Of the 28,300 arriving in Ireland, 19,900 (70.3%) arrived by air and 8,400 (29.7%) arrived by sea.

Of the 36,300 departing Ireland, 24,700 (68.0%) left by air and 11,600 (32.0%) left by sea.

Of those arriving in Ireland in May 2020, 16,400 (58.0%) came by cross-channel routes, 8,200 (29.0%) by continental routes, 1,700 (6.0%) by transatlantic routes and 2,000 (7.1%) by other overseas routes.

The corresponding figures for those departing Ireland were 18,700 (51.5%), 14,600 (40.2%), 1,700 (4.7%) and 1,300 (3.6%) respectively.

The most important staging countries for persons travelling overseas to Ireland were Great Britain (16,400), the Netherlands (2,700) and the United States (1,700).

Staging countries

The most important staging countries for persons travelling overseas from Ireland were Great Britain (18,700), the Netherlands (4,100) and France (3,400).

For the year-to-date (January-May), 3,129,500 arrived in Ireland from overseas and 3,099,400 departed.

These figures represent decreases of 57.7% and 58.3% respectively compared to the same period in 2019.