More than 18.4 million passengers travelled through Dublin airport during 2005, according to official end of year figures released by the airport today.
A total of 1.3 million extra passengers travelled through the airport in 2005, an 8 per cent increase on 2004 figures. European and North Atlantic routes were the main contributors to the growth in traffic.
European traffic grew by 18 per cent, with more than 8.1 million passengers travelling, while North American routes saw passengers numbers increase by 14 per cent to 1.2 million passengers.
Traffic to and from the United Kingdom fell 1 per cent, with just over 8.2 million passengers travelling in 2005. The slight decline is attributed to a combination of a reduction in capacity at Dublin airport and a fall-off in connecting traffic as a result of a growing direct network to the United Kingdom from other Irish airports.
Domestic traffic fell by 5 per cent to 650,000 passengers.
An additional 31 new routes in and out of Dublin were opened during the past year. The airport now has a record 50 scheduled airlines operating to 112 destinations. More than 30 new services are planned in the first quarter of 2006, half of which will represent new routes for the airport.
Dublin airport director Robert Hilliard said: "This is the 14th consecutive year of growth in passenger numbers at Dublin airport, and I am confident that this trend will continue in 2006. Our traffic forecasts indicate a very strong possibility that the airport will break the key 20 million passenger threshold for the first time, later this year."