Cork Airport records 6% growth in passenger numbers while Dublin Airport traffic slips 

The busiest day of the year at Cork Airport was February 21, which 'coincided with the last day of the mid-term break as families took the opportunity to jet off on a short city break or a last-minute winter sun holiday'. File picture

Cork Airport recorded a strong uptick in passenger numbers during February while Dublin Airport has seen its traffic slip, with its operator DAA citing restrictions imposed by the passenger cap.

New figures show that during February, Cork Airport managed 203,466 passengers through its terminal — a 6% increase compared to the same month last year. During the month, the airport saw 1,447 flights.

Passenger numbers through Dublin Airport fell by 0.5% to just under 2.1m. Overall, it managed 15,674 flights during the month.

DAA said that both airports were busy last month with inbound and outbound sports fans travelling to Six Nations rugby matches, and many people took advantage of the school mid-term break, Valentine’s Day, and the St Brigid’s bank holiday weekend for short breaks.

DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs said the busiest day of the year at Cork Airport was February 21, which “coincided with the last day of the mid-term break as families took the opportunity to jet off on a short city break or a last-minute winter sun holiday”.

He said there was strong demand for flights to the UK, Spain, France, Germany, as well as Austria.

Speaking on Dublin Airport, Mr Jacobs said the opening months of 2025 have “starkly highlighted” the impact the current passenger cap is having.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office show a very worrying -25% drop in the number of tourists that visited Ireland in January.

Due to the passenger cap, Dublin Airport is an outlier among other European airports, recording stagnant passenger numbers in the opening months of 2025 while other capital city airports are experiencing strong growth.

“It was the third month running of flat or declining passenger numbers year-on-year, despite strong demand from both passengers and airlines to fly in and out of Dublin.

“We need the passenger cap removed in the next six months and we need turbocharged planning that gives faster decisions and allows DAA to add new terminal capacity,” he said.

Under the terms of its planning permission from 2007, Dublin Airport is limited to managing 32m passengers a year.

It breached that limit last year, and has made a number of changes to reduce traffic into the airport this year as a result.

A proposal by DAA to increase the passenger cap was ruled invalid by Fingal County Council. Daa criticised the decision and plans to resubmit the planning application.

While this has been going on, the legality of the passenger cap at Dublin Airport was referred from the High Court to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In November, the High Court agreed to pause the effects of the passenger cap at Dublin airport for the upcoming summer schedule after a case was brought by a cohort of airlines.