The data, released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), shows significant decreases in all months in passenger numbers for April, May and June. These decreases are associated with the restrictions imposed in March 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Passenger numbers decreased in all five airports; Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry. Dublin Airport accounted for 94.6 per cent of all air passengers handled in the second quarter of 2020.
Amsterdam-Schiphol, London-Heathrow and London-Stansted were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in the second quarter of 2020. The CSO data shows that almost nine out of every ten passengers (86.9 per cent) on international flights in the main airports were travelling to or from Europe.
The two most popular countries of origin/destination were the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Outside of Europe, the United States of America was the most popular country of origin/destination in the second quarter of 2020.
Dramatic decrease in international travel
The number of passengers arriving to or departing from Ireland in April fell by 99.2 per cent.
Commenting on the release, statistician Olive Loughnane said: "The figures show a dramatic decrease in international travel during Q2 2020. In particular, data for April 2020 shows a fall of 99.2 per cent in passengers handled by Irish airports compared to the same month in 2019. This is associated with restrictions imposed due to COVID-19.
"In Quarter 2 of 2020, almost 72,000 passengers travelled to Ireland and 90,000 passengers departed from Ireland. These numbers represent a fall of 98.6 per cent (5.1 million) and 98.3 per cent (5.2 million) respectively, when compared to the same period in 2019.
"The amount of air freight handled by the main airports decreased by 3.8 per cent to 32,593 tonnes in the second quarter of 2020 when compared with the same period in 2019. However, freight in the first half of 2020 is up by 5.0 per cent to 69,726 tonnes compared with the first half of 2019."
