As the Christmas holidays begin, over 960,000 passengers, the highest number yet, are expected to travel through Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports during the two-week period.
Today is expected to be Dublin Airport's busiest day for pre-Christmas charter traffic, with more than 75 charter flights due to land and take off.
Aer Rianta recorded its busiest day at the airport last Thursday, December 20th, when over 26,000 passengers returned home for the Christmas period, which will continue until Sunday, January 6th.
Overall, more people than ever are travelling, with all services recording higher numbers than the Christmas period last year.
Dublin Airport will handle more than 820,000 passengers, a 3 per cent increase over the same period last year.
The weekend will be busy but by Christmas Eve the rush will have quietened to only 20,000 passengers as most will have travelled already, having opted for a long weekend ahead of Christmas. Then the rush will begin again as the holidays end.
Cork Airport expects to handle more than 55,000 passengers over the period, an increase of 5 per cent over 2000. At Shannon Airport, over 85,000 passengers are expected, 4 per cent above the Christmas period last year.
To cater for the increased number of passengers, airlines are using bigger aircraft rather than extra flights.
The special advice from Aer Rianta this holiday to passengers travelling out of Ireland is not to wrap Christmas presents as airport security officials may want to check them. It also advises passengers to allow themselves extra time to get to airports in the event of traffic congestion.
The ferry companies are also recording higher figures. The biggest increase is on Irish Ferries, where a spokesman said the overall figure was up 20 per cent.
Irish Ferries will be carrying 66,000 people and 17,000 cars on its Dublin/Holyhead, Rosslare/ Pembroke services and 3,000 people and 700 vehicles on the Rosslare/Cherbourg route.
The spokesman said it had noted new trends, i.e. the number of non-nationals travelling out of the State for the holiday had nearly doubled over last year and there had been an increase in the number of people bringing their cars into the country.
Stena Line will carry more than 57,000 passengers and 16,000 cars, which is 5 per cent up on Christmas last year. This is on the three routes D·n Laoghaire/Holyhead, Dublin/Holyhead and Rosslare/Fishguard.
Within the country, Bus ╔ireann expects to carry 200,000 passengers during the holiday, starting from tomorrow to January 2nd. On Christmas Eve, normal weekday services will operate with some cancellations.
All Eurolines cross-channel services will be cancelled and also some expressway services. There will be no services on Christmas Day and a limited service on December 26th.
Iarnr≤d ╔ireann expects up to 400,000 passengers on Intercity rail services over the period. A special Christmas/New Year ticket is available on most routes, valid for travel between Thursday, December 20th and Wednesday, January 2nd.
Tomorrow, Dublin Bus will have extra early morning bus services for workers and shoppers.