Substantial increase in overseas travel last month

Overseas travel to and from Ireland increased substantially last month compared to July, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

More than 362,000 passengers arrived into Ireland on overseas routes in August, an increase of 60 per cent on July’s figures (227,300).

Just over 328,000 passengers departed the country on overseas routes over the same period, a rise of 19 per cent on the previous month (275,400).

However, the CSO said overseas travel remained “dramatically lower” compared to August 2019, when more than two million passengers arrived and departed.

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The majority of passengers coming into Ireland were from the UK (112,600), Spain (33,600), Poland (31,700) and Italy (27,300).

Similarly, those leaving Ireland mostly travelled to the UK (125,400), Poland (23,900), Italy (23,300) and Spain (22,800).

Just 11,600 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes and 7,800 departed on these routes.

Between January and August of this year, 3.8 million passengers travelled to and from Ireland, compared to almost 14 million overseas passengers over the same period in 2019 (a decrease of almost 73 per cent).

The majority of passengers arriving into Ireland last month did so by air (86 per cent) with 14 per cent by sea. In terms of those departing the country, 84 per cent did so by air and 16 per cent by sea.