Irish air travel collapsed by 90% last month

New figures confirm that commercial Irish air travel collapsed by 90 per cent last month as Covid-19 restrictions gripped aviation.

Safety regulator the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) says overall air traffic in Irish skies tumbled 85 per cent in April, the first full month of travel bans designed to combat the pandemic.

Commercial traffic at the State-owned Cork, Dublin and Shannon airports was down by 90 per cent overall, showing the scale of aviation's crisis, according to Peter Kearney, IAA chief executive.

Ireland’s biggest airport, Dublin, recorded just 2,067 flights during April, an 89.98 per cent decrease on the same month last year.

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At Cork Airport, flight numbers retreated 94 per cent to 225 while Shannon recorded a 79.8 per cent slide to 364 .

The number of flights that passed through Irish airspace but did not land here fell to 5,279 in April from almost 30,000 during the same month in 2019.

The IAA's analysis shows that journeys between Europe and the US declined by 83 per cent to 6,972 last month from 41,214 in April 2019.

Overall, the authority supervised 14,907 flights last month, which it says was an 85 per cent decrease on the same period last year.

The IAA is responsible for aviation safety, air traffic control and navigation, which includes guiding flights through Irish air space and, jointly with its British counterpart, through a large section of the skies over the north Atlantic.

Mr Kearney described aviation’s collapse as “swift and sudden” on Thursday, but added that the authority hoped it had reached the bottom.

Aviation for growth

He suggested that attention should turn to re-opening air travel. Mr Kearney pointed out that the Republic relied on aviation for growth and is a major player in the industry.

"It is important therefore, if Ireland is to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and return to growth, that we have a fully functioning and stable aviation industry," he said.

Mr Kearney argued that Europe needed a co-ordinated approach to ensuring that air travel can restart, giving passengers confidence that their flights will go ahead while minimising risks linked to Covid-19.

"I welcome the guidance published by the European Commission yesterday [Wednesday] in relation to re-opening aviation and tourism," he said.

“It is important now that restrictions on travel are eased or lifted as soon as possible and in a coordinated manner across Europe.”

The commission published guidelines for a return to air travel across the EU, whose €150 billion a year tourist business faces collapse in the face of restrictions.

These call for an end to blanket travel bans and their replacement with more focused measures as the circulation of the virus falls. However, many airlines criticised them for being too vague.

EU air travel watchdog, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, is due to publish its own recommendations shortly.

The IAA has warned that its own revenues, earned by charging airlines for its services, will suffer as a result of the coronavirus travel bans. Its turnover dipped 2 per cent last year to €197 million.