Dublin-London is the world’s second-busiest route

Dublin-London is now the world's second-busiest international air route, new figures show.

A total of 3.6 million passengers travelled between the two cities last year - a 6.9% rise on the figure for 2012.

New International Air Transport Association (IATA) statistics showed that the busiest international route in 2013 was Hong Kong to Chinese Taipei on which 4.9 million travelled last year.

Other IATA statistics showed that in 2013 airlines carried nearly 3.13 billion passengers - a 5.1% rise on 2012.

They also revealed that the the UK was the top European country in terms of passengers carried on international and domestic routes, with nearly 178 million passengers, up 3.7% on 2012.

According to the association, Asia-Pacific was the busiest region, handling just over one billion passengers, an increase of 9.3%.

European passenger numbers rose 3.4% to just under 826 million, while North American traffic was up 0.7% at just under 819 million.

Today's research also shows that the price of air travel in real terms fell by 7.4% last year compared with 2012.