A record 818,000 passengers travelled through Knock Airport last year as the west of Ireland gateway marked full recovery from Covid shut downs.
Ireland West Airport — as it is officially dubbed — said on Thursday that passenger numbers there rose 13 per cent on 2022, the first year since 2020 not marred by restrictions, to reach a new all-time high.
The company confirmed that last year’s 818,000 total comfortably beat its previous record of 807,000, set in 2019.
Knock was the focus of world attention in April when US president Joe Biden arrived there on his official visit to Ireland.
Arthur French, chairman, Ireland West Airport said its 2023 performance boosted tourism, jobs and the wider economy.
“We launched new services to both Lanzarote and Tenerife with Ryanair, and for the first time launched a new daily service with Aer Lingus, to one of Europe’s major international airport hubs, London Heathrow,” he noted.
Mr French pledged that the airport would work with airlines through 2024 to add more routes.
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August was Knock’s busiest month, with 102,000 people travelling through there, while the busiest day was Tuesday 29th of August, when it handled more than 4,500 passengers.
Traffic to and from Britain totalled 665,000, aided by the new Aer Lingus service. Ryanair was the busiest airline, carrying more than 730,000 passengers. Almost 150,000 people flew to and from continental Europe.
More than 6,000 flights departed and arrived at Knock last year and less than 10 were disrupted by bad weather, the lowest figure on record.
