Dublin and Cork airports both had busiest ever May in 2025

Ellen O'Donoghue

Dublin and Cork airports both had their busiest ever May last month.

Passenger numbers were up 4.5 per cent in Dublin Airport, with three 120,000 passenger days in May, while Cork Airport passenger numbers were up 17 per cent.

Cork Airport welcomed over 330,000 passengers in May, following their announcement last month of a €200 million capital investment plan.

Dublin Airport welcomed more than 3,257,700 passengers in May, and on 27 days, there were more than 100,000 passengers passing through.

The previous highest ever number of passengers in the month of May was 115,000 on May 23rd, 2024.

The May performance reflects the demand that exists to travel through Ireland's national hub airport and onwards to other destinations throughout the island, as well as people connecting from Ireland to destinations across the world, a daa press release said.

The company added that "due to the High Court decision that the Irish Aviation Authority cannot take the passenger planning cap into account when allocating slots to airlines, the number of flights has surged in the summer period".

"However, this is a temporary relief pending the outcome of the legal process currently before the European Court of Justice, and the cap remains in place until a solution is found," they said.

"Daa continues to do all it can to remove the passenger cap through the planning system and welcomes the comments by Minister of Transport Darragh O’Brien at Dublin Chamber of Commerce last month that he expects to bring forward legislative proposals to resolve the issue in the coming months, while respecting the independence of the planning process."

Daa chief executive Kenny Jacobs said that the May Bank Holiday weekend brought a brilliant start to the month at Cork Airport, with passenger numbers on that weekend up 20 per cent on the same weekend in 2024.

"We’re also celebrating new routes, including the start last Saturday of SunExpress’ route to Izmir in Türkiye. SunExpress is Cork’s ninth and newest airline, and it’s great to have a direct service to Türkiye on the route map," he said.

"With the peak holiday season now in full flow, the whole team at Cork Airport are well prepared for a very busy summer - quite possibly the busiest summer ever. It’s great to see such healthy numbers on some of our inbound services from the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy as tourists fly to Cork – the gateway to the South of Ireland," Mr Jacob added.

He also said that summer has come early to Dublin Airport, with May 2025 "comfortably" their busiest ever, with three record-breaking 120,000+ passenger days.

"It’s all hands-on-deck across the airport to make sure our passengers have a smooth and enjoyable time at the airport, and we’re working hard to ensure standards are even higher than they were last summer when our passenger satisfaction scores reached an all-time high," Mr Jacobs said.

"We’ve listened closely to what areas passengers want us to focus on, and we are using that feedback to introduce a whole host of improvements that aim to remove pinch points for those both arriving and departing from our terminals."

He added that May numbers at Dublin Airport were boosted by the launch of new routes, including direct Aer Lingus services to Nashville and Indianapolis.

"Of course, we would be adding even more high-demand new routes if it wasn’t for the uncertainty of the passenger cap, which is still making airlines cautious about bringing increased frequencies and new direct routes to locations like India, Brazil and Singapore. That will remain the case until the cap is fully removed," he said.

"Research we commissioned from independent polling company Red C found that 86 per cent of Fingal residents support further development of Dublin Airport to allow it to grow, while 84% agree that having the airport in their community fuels economic development".