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Official end of year figures released by Dublin Airport, today 24th January, show that more than 2.7 million additional passengers travelled through the airport last year, representing a 15% increase over 2005. In all, over 21.1 million passengers used Dublin Airport in 2006.
European traffic rose by an impressive 25% with more than 10 million passengers travelling in 2006. This growth was delivered through a combination of new European routes and larger aircraft operating on existing services. The European market has now surpassed the UK market as the largest route sector at Dublin Airport.
Significant growth was also achieved on North American routes in 2006 with passenger numbers increasing by 8%. In all, more than 1.3 million passengers travelled on the many transatlantic services to and from Dublin Airport. Growth on this route was supported by new daily services on the New York and Newark routes.
Traffic to and from the UK grew by 4% with just over 8.6 million passengers travelling last year while domestic traffic performed very well, increasing by 25% to over 810,000 passengers.
It is worth noting that passenger volumes to and from Poland, the Baltic Region and the Middle East all grew substantially in 2006. The strongest growth came from the Polish market, where passenger numbers increased from 143,000 in 2005 to over 580,000 in 2006. Similarly, the Baltic routes (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) collectively grew from just 174,000 passengers in 2005 to over 340,000 in 2006. More than 95,000 passengers travelled directly to/from the Middle East during 2006.
Last year was another exceptionally busy year for Dublin Airport with:
Dublin Airport now has a record 97 scheduled and charter airlines flying to over 180 destinations internationally and there is more to come. Plans are in place to launch, 20 new routes/services in the first six months of 2007.
Commenting on last year's performance, Director of Dublin Airport, Robert Hilliard said "2006 was a very busy, challenging and successful year for Dublin Airport and while passenger volumes are expected to grow by more than one million this year airport users will see tangible results of our plans to cater for this growth with additional capacity coming on line.
Check-in Area 14 will be brought into operation shortly with the capacity to handle 3-4 million departing passengers annually. The introduction of this new area, with 25 additional check-in desks, will bring significant relief to the Departures Floor. Elsewhere, work is continuing apace on the major new passenger boarding facility known as Pier D for delivery in October this year; preparatory work is underway for an oral hearing, by An Bord Pleanála as part of the appeals process concerning T2 and additional information, requested by An Bord Pleanála, is being compiled for the proposed new runway" Mr. Hilliard concluded.
Ends
24th January, 2007
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