Air and sea travel makes full recovery after exceeding pre-pandemic levels 

The vast majority of passengers arrived from the UK, accounting for around 35.7% of overall air and sea travel.

Over 1,252,000 passengers arrived in Ireland from overseas in January, marking a full recovery from pre-pandemic levels with last month's figures up 1.4% on the same month in 2020.

January's figures also represent an increase of 114.4% year-on-year, with the annual surge seeing passenger numbers rise by just under 668,000 compared to January 2022.

Some 1,216,600 passengers arrived by air with the remaining 35,400 travelling by sea in January 2023.

The vast majority of passengers arrived from the UK, accounting for around 35.7% of overall air and sea travel.

The most recent figures from January represent a full recovery in international travel since the pandemic, with CSO statistician, Gregg Patrick, commenting:

"These passengers represented a very substantial increase on January 2022, when 584,100 passengers arrived on overseas routes. The increase is even more substantial when compared with January 2021 when just 108,000 passengers arrived on these routes. 

"Passenger arrivals are also higher than pre-pandemic January 2020, when 1,235,100 passengers arrived on overseas routes, representing an increase of 1.4%."

Air travel saw the most pronounced recovery, increasing by 115.9% year-on-year. Transatlantic traffic was rose notably, up 126.4%, increasing from 40,200 in January 2022 to 91,100 in January 2023.

A large proportion of passengers travelled via continental routes, with the majority of people coming from Spain up over 72% year-on-year.

Despite these increases, Mr Patrick said, "in overall terms, Great Britain remained the most important departure country for overseas travel to Ireland, with 447,000 passengers arriving on air and sea routes from Great Britain in January 2023, compared to just 164,700 in January 2022."