Cork Airport recorded its three millionth passenger two months earlier than last year

Welcoming Hannah Davison and her children, Emily and Joshua, from Horsham who were the three millionth passengers to use Cork Airport in 2025 when they arrived from Gatwick with Ryanair. Airport management presented them with a bottle of champagne and a luxury hamper from Cork Airport Duty Free to mark the significant milestone. Picture shows (L-R) Duty Free Manager, Pat O'Connor, Emily, Hannah and Joshua Davison, Deputy Managing Director, Roy O'Driscoll and Communication Specialist, Kathleen Walshe at Cork Airport. - Picture: David Creedon

Cork Airport welcomed almost 307,000 passengers in October, 18% higher than the same month last year. 

This contributed to Cork Airport welcoming its three millionth passenger of 2025 in the final week of October - almost two months earlier than when it hit the same milestone last year.

Passenger numbers travelling through Cork Airport during the first 10 months of the year were 14.5% higher than in the same period last year.

It was another record-busting month across Cork and Dublin airports operated by Daa, with almost 3.6m passengers going through the island’s two hubs.

Numbers in October were boosted by a busy bank holiday weekend and mid-term period, as well as the Cork Jazz Festival. The month also saw strong numbers of tourists travelling to Ireland, with the island’s autumn attractiveness boosted by the good work being done to promote it as the authentic home of Halloween.

The number of passengers going through Dublin Airport in October jumped 8% year-on-year to an all-time record level for October of just over 3.2m.

“In October, nearly 50,000 more passengers used Cork Airport compared with October 2024, as the airport strengthens its position as the airport of choice for customers in the south of Ireland," Daa chief Kenny Jacobs said. 

"It was great to see so many inbound visitors arriving for the Cork Jazz Festival, and the departure gates were busy too with lots of families heading off for some winter sunshine during the mid-term break.

“Daa is continuing to invest big to maximise the potential of Cork Airport and works are progressing at pace on the construction of the new mezzanine floor in the terminal, which will soon be the location of the airport’s new passenger security screening area – fully kitted out with best-in-class C3 scanning technology.”

October was the seventh consecutive month of passenger growth through Dublin, continuing a trend that started in April when the High Court imposed a stay on the Irish aviation regulator, requiring it to not take account of the 32m cap when deciding on slots available to airlines, while it awaits a ruling from Europe regarding whether the cap can be considered by the regulator when assigning slots.