Air and sea travel to Ireland in June rebounds but still below pre-pandemic levels – The Irish Times

More than 1.7 million passengers arrived in Ireland from overseas in June – an 11-fold increase – as the tourism sector continued its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figure compares to just 160,000 arrivals in June last year, when the country was still under Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Some 1.6 million passengers arrived by plane last month and 97,500 by boat. More arrivals came from Britain (530,600) than from any other country.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) statistician Gregg Patrick said the figures represented “a dramatic recovery” from June 2021, and an “even more dramatic recovery” from June 2020, when just 57,100 passengers strangers have arrived here.

However, arrivals abroad remain significantly lower (12%) than in June 2019 before the pandemic, when just over 1.9 million foreigners arrived here.

“The recovery can be seen in both modes of travel [air and sea]although the resumption of air travel is the most dramatic with a 12-fold increase from June 2021,” Mr. Patrick said.

“The recovery is evenly spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic growing the most in relative terms with 19 transatlantic passengers arriving in June 2022 for each in June 2021,” he said.

CSO figures show 208,500 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes in June, down from 11,000 for the same month of 2021, but below the pre-pandemic June 2019 level of 250,500.

“Among continental routes, Spanish routes were the busiest, with 250,800 passengers arriving on these routes, an increase of more than 17 times compared to June 2021.

“However, overall Britain remained the most important departure country for overseas travelers to Ireland, with 530,600 passengers arriving by air and sea from Britain, compared to just 57,700 in June 2021.”

According to the CSO, some 1.83 million people left the Republic by air and sea in June. This compares to 199,100 in the same month of 2021 and 73,900 for the same month of 2020. In June 2019, some 1.93 million left the country.