“Cork Airport is really flying,”

That’s according to Kenny Jacobs, CEO of daa, the operator of Cork and Dublin airports, after Cork Airport surged ahead in March, welcoming a total of 249,000 passengers, a 10 per cent increase compared to March 2024.

In stark contrast, passengers through Dublin Airport’s terminal doors dropped to 2.54 million, a decline of 83,000 (-3%) versus March last year.

“With a bumper St. Patrick’s weekend, lots of Six Nations charters and additional services to Birmingham for the Cheltenham Racing Festival, Cork continues to grow at lightning pace.” said Jacobs.

“Air France resumed its popular Cork to Paris Charles de Gaulle service early in March and Lufthansa resumed its service to Frankfurt last week, which significantly improves European hub connectivity available from Cork.

“It’s great to see four new routes added this summer – Bilbao, Bordeaux, Corfu and Izmir – with the first of these to Bilbao starting on April 16. Cork is experiencing significant growth and success in the first quarter of 2025.”

Passenger cap 

Mr Jacobs said Dublin Airport’s March figures reflect the slump despite St. Patrick’s Day and Tourism Ireland “doing a fantastic job” promoting Ireland around the world.

“The investment by the Irish state in attracting visitors to our shores is completely undermined by the reduction of capacity at Dublin Airport.” Mr Jacobs added, referring to Dublin Airport’s passenger cap of 32 million a year.

“Our national tourism policy has a stated aim of 5.6% annual revenue growth from overseas visitors each year out to 2030. This is unachievable while the cap remains.”