Summer exodus begins as 500,000 passengers expected at Irish airports this weekend

Almost 525,000 people will travel through the Republic’s State-owned airports through the June bank holiday weekend, according to the latest estimates, as Cork passenger numbers top 1 million for the year so far.

Dublin Airport forecast on Tuesday that 425,000 people would travel through there next weekend, equalling the 2019 June bank holiday.

The airport, run by State company DAA along with Cork, expects 220,000 departures and 205,000 arrivals through the period.

Dublin Airport advised anyone without an existing car-park booking to consider travelling to the airport by public transport, as demand was “extremely high”.

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Cork Airport predicts more than 56,500 passengers will travel through over the June bank holiday weekend, regarded as summer’s traditional start.

That figure will be 3 per cent more than over the same weekend in 2019 and 13 per cent ahead of last year, which was the first in 36 months not to be marred by Government restrictions.

Shannon Airport, meanwhile, calculated earlier this week that more than 42,000 passengers would show up there over the holiday weekend, bringing the total for all three to 523,500.

A Shannon statement said that passenger numbers this June weekend would beat 2022′s total by 18.5 per cent.

Dublin Airport spokesman Graeme McQueen pledged that staff there would focus on getting 90 per cent of passengers through security in less than 20 minutes.

The airport has begun installing C3 security scanners in both terminals which will ultimately eliminate the need to take out liquids.

However, Dublin’s statement noted that the rules requiring passengers to pack permitted liquids in resealable transparent bags still applied for the moment.

About 100,000 people a day travelled through Dublin Airport over the second half of this month. Passenger numbers there could equal 2019′s record 32.9 million by the end of the year, according to DAA estimates.

Meanwhile, Cork Airport welcomed its one millionth passenger of 2023 on Tuesday, as it moved towards topping pre-Covid totals for the year as a whole.

Niall MacCarthy, the airport’s managing director, added that summer 2023 was shaping up to be busier than 2019, the last year before Government Covid curbs hit travel.

Mr MacCarthy added that Cork has 44 direct European and British routes this summer, including new Ryanair services to Seville in Spain and La Rochelle in France.

He noted that the airport offered good value online car parking. Cork advises travellers to arrive 90 minutes before their scheduled departure times.