Shannon Airport traffic rallies with record passenger numbers despite cost pressures

The airport recorded 902,603 passengers coming through its doors from January to June of this year.

Shannon Airport traffic has rebounded post-pandemic as it was used by a record number of passengers during the first six months of the year.

Cost-of-living pressures have yet to dampen pent-up demand among holidaymakers as airports, including regional ones like Shannon, have witnessed increased demand for overseas travel.

“The first six months of this year have been our busiest for this period, in over a decade,” said CEO of the Shannon Airport group Mary Considine.

The airport recorded 902,603 passengers coming through its doors from January to June of this year. This is a 41% increase on traffic recorded in the same period last year and a 6% increase on pre-pandemic levels in 2018.

Despite rampant heatwaves across Europe this summer, passenger figures for Shannon Airport were 32% higher for June compared with the same month a year ago and 10% higher than in June 2019.

The airport also recorded its busiest day in seven years last month, with 8,565 passengers travelling through Shannon on June 23. In May, there was a significant uplift in passenger traffic of 27% compared to the same period in 2022.

Shannon operates a network of 35 destinations to the UK, Europe and the US for this year.

“The addition of new services such as our five new routes with Ryanair for this summer, our daily service to Chicago with United Airlines and our recently announced Paris service to Charles De Gaulle with Aer Lingus, will play a pivotal role in continued growth for Shannon,” said Ms Considine.

However, this bumper growth may cool down in the winter when price pressures may get worse for consumers as mortgage rates rise due to European Central Bank interest rate hikes. This was a key concern for budget airline Ryanair in it’s latest earnings update published earlier this week.

Ryanair posted €663m in profit after tax for the three months to the end of June, and €3.6bn in total revenue. The airline is operating its largest ever summer schedule with over 3,200 flights and up to 600,000 passengers daily.