February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — The foot-and-mouth-disease crisis and airline strikes have hit passenger traffic to and from Britain, according to figures for the first quarter of the year issued by Aer Rianta.
Air traffic between Dublin and Britain fell by 6 percent to 1.5 million passengers and passengers between Britain and Cork fell by 5 percent.
British traffic with Shannon bucked the trend and showed a 29 percent rise helped by an increased number of Ryanair flights.
Overall, air traffic with the three airports showed a 2 percent rise on last year to 3.4 million passengers
An Aer Rianta spokesman said they estimated that in March alone, when the foot-and-mouth crisis really began to bite, Dublin Airport lost about 100,000 passengers on UK routes.
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The strongest performance for the airport authority was the level of air traffic on European and transAtlantic routes.
Passenger numbers to Dublin rose by 16 percent on European routes and 7 percent on US routes. European traffic with Cork was up 13 percent.
Through Shannon, European traffic grew by 90 percent and transAtlantic traffic was up by 12 percent.
The spokesman said European traffic had been about 10 percent ahead of last year in January and February but incoming bookings slowed in March.
"The figures are also boosted by traffic out from Ireland. There is quite a considerable increase in numbers traveling out to some destinations on charters."
He said St. Patrick’s Day visitor cancellations and the downturn in the U.S. economy had hit transAtlantic traffic figures.
The spokesman said that while the first quarter figures were "reasonably encouraging," Aer Rianta is concerned about the next three months as bookings were disappointing and some charters had been cancelled.
"It is not looking too bright," he said.