OVERSEAS TRAVEL FOR the month of April was almost four times higher than the same month last year, new CSO figures show.

April 2021 saw 69,400 overseas passenger arrivals and 73,000 departures, compared with 16,100 arrivals and 17,800 departures in the same month last year.

International travel significantly increased in April compared with March this year, with the number of arrivals up 13.1% from 61,400 and departures up 9.8% from 66,500.

However, for every passenger in April 2021, there were 24 in pre-pandemic April 2019, when there were 1,712,900 arrivals and 1,736,400 departures.

That represents a drop of 95.9% and 95.8% respectively.

CSO statistician Gregg Patrick said that the April 2021 statistics “show that continental routes contributed most to the passenger traffic”.

“Some 40,100 passengers arrived on continental routes and 37,300 passengers departed on continental routes,” Patrick said.

“By way of contrast, 21,600 passengers arrived on cross-channel routes and 28,000 passengers departed on cross-channel routes,” he said.

“Just 3,300 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes and the same number of passengers departed on these routes.”

Apart from Great Britain, which accounted for all cross-channel routes, the most important routing countries for overseas travel in April 2021 were the Netherlands (7,300 arrivals, 6,100 departures), Spain (6,300 arrivals, 5,000 departures) and Poland (4,700 arrivals and departures).

Of the 69,400 persons arriving in Ireland in April 2021, 88.5%, or 61,400, arrived by air and 11.5%, or 8,000, arrived by sea.

Of the 73,000 persons departing Ireland, 84.3%, or 61,500, departed by air and 15.7%, or 11,500, departed by sea.

The continental route accounted for most passenger traffic, with 57.8% of arrivals, or 40,100, and 51.0% of departures, 37,300.

The cross-channel route was next busiest, with 31.2% of arrivals, or 21,600, and 38.3% departures, 28,000.

The transatlantic route saw just 4.8% of arrivals, or 3,300, and 4.6% of departures, 3,300.

So far this year 293,700 people arrived in Ireland from overseas and 311,400 people departed.

This compares with 3,101,300 arrivals and 3,063,100 departures in the same period in 2020, and 5,579,300 arrivals and 5,575,700 departures in the same period in 2019.