NEARLY 5,000 PEOPLE  a day have flown into Ireland during July so far, with passengers from the UK representing the highest number of people coming into the country. 

Dublin Airport, Cork Airport and Shannon Airport have recorded a total of 98,946 passengers arriving into Ireland by air travel between 29 June and 19 July, giving a daily average of 4,700 arrivals across the three airports over the three week period.

The number of arrivals into Ireland has increased steadily week-on-week at each airport since passenger flights resumed at the start of the month.

Passengers from the UK represent over two-thirds of arrivals into Dublin Airport, with over 26,000 people travelling from the UK to Dublin by air in July.

3,700 passengers from the UK travelled through Cork Airport, while 1,900 entered through Shannon Airport.

The figures include both Irish residents and foreign residents arriving into Ireland.

The figures do not include transfer passengers who arrive in Ireland as a stopover before travelling onwards to a final destination.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said that “while our three State airports have seen some increases in operations since more passenger flights resumed on 1 July, passenger numbers still remain low”.

Spain represents the second most popular point of departure, with nearly 5,000 travelling from Spain to Dublin Airport between 13 July and 19 July, and 10,900 entering the country overall since the start of the month.

Arrivals to Dublin Airport from the US were lower last week than people travelling from the UK, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, or Italy.

Of these nine countries with the highest number of air passengers arriving in Ireland, Italy is the only country on Ireland’s green list for travel, indicating that the presence of Covid-19 is lower than or similar to Ireland.

1,100 air passengers travelled from the US to Dublin Airport between 13 July and 19 July. 13 came through Shannon Airport, and no passengers from the US arrived in Cork.

3,200 people have came through Ireland’s airports from the US since the start of July. Just 393 air passengers have flown to Ireland from Canada.

Ryan said that 9 million passengers are expected at Dublin Airport in 2020, compared to 32 million passengers in 2019.

“Cork Airport’s overall passenger numbers were down around 90% last week compared to the same period last year,” he said.

“While Shannon Airport has seen a slight uplift in passenger numbers, they also still remain on average over 87% down on this time last year.”

Over the three weeks, 5,200 people have flown to Ireland from France, and 5,100 passengers flew from Germany.

6,700 air passengers arrived from Poland, 5,700 from the Netherlands, and 4,000 from Portugal.

3,100 people have flown from Italy to Ireland over the three week period.

At Ireland’s ports, 13,793 passengers arrived between 29 July and 12 July.

10,000 of these travelled through Ireland’s central corridor, which links ferry services between Dublin and Great Britain.

2,200 sea travellers arrived in Ireland through the southern corridor, which includes routes between Rosslare and Wales.

The continental corridor, which links Dublin, Rosslare and Cork to Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain, was travelled by 1,400 passengers.

Last Tuesday night, the government released a long-awaited ‘green list’ for travel that details countries and territories people can travel from without having to restrict their movements once they arrive in Ireland.

The destinations are Cyprus, Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Greece, Gibraltar, Greenland, Monaco, and San Marino.

The government stated: “Anyone arriving into Ireland from these countries will not have to restrict their movements. Passengers from any other country outside of those with a Normal Precautions advisory are asked to restrict their movements for 14 days.”