In July 2021, 380,700 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes compared to 160,000 in June 2021, (up 138% on June 2021), according to new CSO figures.

In the same month, 428,600 passengers departed from Ireland on overseas routes compared to 199,100 in June 2021, (up 115% on the previous month).

Overseas travel was considerably higher than in July 2020, when 227,300 passengers arrived, and 275,400 passengers departed.

Overseas travel remains dramatically lower than pre-pandemic July 2019, when 2,225,900 passengers arrived, and 2,183,900 passengers departed the country. 

Continental routes

The July 2021 statistics show that continental routes contributed most to the passenger traffic.

Some 217,700 passengers arrived on continental routes and 287,300 passengers departed on continental routes, the figures show.

In contrast, 123,100 passengers arrived on cross-channel routes and 110,800 passengers departed on cross-channel routes.

Just 26,700 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes and 18,300 passengers departed on these routes.

Continental destinations in July 2021 were:

• Spain (42,300 arrivals, 66,400 departures),
• Poland (26,000 arrivals, 36,500 departures),
• France (23,100 arrivals, 27,400 departures).

The CSO says that the year-to-date picture (January-July 2021), shows that 919,800 overseas passengers arrived in Ireland and 1,036,100 overseas passengers departed from Ireland.

“This compares to both 3.4 million arrivals and departures in the same period in 2020 and 11.6 million arrivals and 11.7 million departures in the same period in 2019.

“This illustrates the ongoing dramatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel to and from Ireland,” the CSO statement says.