Trapattoni's travelling army boosts passenger traffic at Dublin Airport

TRAP’S ARMY of Irish football fans helped boost passenger traffic through Dublin Airport in June by 3 per cent.

Just under 1.9 million people used Dublin Airport in June, with passenger volumes to continental Europe up 4 per cent to just more than one million, the Dublin Airport Authority said yesterday.

This boost in traffic was aided by the tens of thousands of soccer fans who travelled to Poland last month to support the Irish team at the Euro 2012 championships. The Irish fans won a special award from the European football’s governing body Uefa for their support of the Irish team and their good-natured behaviour during the tournament.

Transatlantic traffic grew by 5 per cent at the airport in June, with just under 180,000 passengers flying to and from North America. Traffic to the Middle East doubled to 43,000, a signal of the impact Dubai-based Emirates has made since launching services in January.

However, it was not all positive new for Dublin Airport in June. Traffic to the UK, our biggest tourist market and most important trade partner, fell by 1 per cent to just under 600,000.

Passenger numbers on domestic routes collapsed by 66 per cent, with 5,000 passengers taking domestic flights last month. This reflected the sharp reduction in State-funded PSO (public service obligation) routes, with just Donegal and Kerry now operated from Dublin.

About nine million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in the first six months of this year, a decline of just under 1 per cent on the same period of 2011.