Dublin Airport Announces Busiest Ever Year In 2015
Dublin Airport had its busiest ever year in 2015, carrying a record 25 million passengers, it was officially announced today
The increased traffic has led to the creation of some 350 new jobs at the airport – about half of which have already been filled.
Passenger numbers increased by 15% last year with an additional 3.3 million people using the airport. The expansion was driven by 22 new routes and extra capacity on almost 40 existing services.
New records were set for European traffic, British traffic, transatlantic traffic, traffic to other international destinations and transfer traffic.
Details of the traffic increase, and the resultant jobs, were outlined at a press conference at the airport attended Transport, Tourism and Sport Minister Paschal Donohoe and daa Chief Executive Kevin Toland.
The new staff are being recruited in areas such as security, customer service and asset management.
The growth in passenger numbers is expected to continue into 2016, with 11 new scheduled services already announced for this year, including new direct transatlantic services to Hartford Connecticut, Los Angeles, Newark and Vancouver. There will also be new long-haul charter services to Cancun in Mexico and Montego Bay in Jamaica.
Minister Donohoe said the extra inbound passengers at Dublin Airport helped to bring record numbers of tourists to Ireland last year.
“The opportunities offered to business by new routes from Dublin and additional choice on existing services similarly helped to boost trade and foreign direct investment, all of which are assisting our economic recovery.”
He added: “Connectivity is vital for our island economy and the impact of these additional passengers and new routes at Dublin Airport will be felt right across the country.”
The Minister welcomed the new jobs and said he looked forward to continued growth in passenger numbers and employment at Dublin Airport in the years ahead.
daa Chief Executive Kevin Toland described 2015 as “a fantastic year of passenger growth” at the airport. He said this was good news for the Irish economy, for tourism, and for job creation, both at the airport and in the wider economy.”
“daa is hiring 350 additional staff as a direct result of this growth in passengers at Dublin Airport. We recruited about 170 new people last year and a further new 180 staff will be hired during 2016.
“These additional staff are mainly in customer-facing areas, as we work to ensure that Dublin Airport continues to offer an excellent and efficient product to our passengers and airline customers as traffic increases,” Mr Toland said.
He added: “We are constantly investing in the airfield and the passenger facilities to allow our customers to operate as efficiently as possible, and to provide a quality travel experience to the travelling public.”
Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison said most of the airport’s airline customers saw growth last year. “These included our two largest airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus, and we also welcomed six new scheduled airlines in 2015 – Ethiopian Airlines, ASL Airlines France, Finnair, Transavia, Vueling and WOW Air.”
He said there were 22 new routes last year and extra capacity on a total of 39 existing services. “Ryanair launched three routes at Dublin last year and also added significant additional capacity on 21 of its existing services, while Aer Lingus opened six new routes and had extra capacity on 14 existing services.”
Long-haul passenger traffic, comprising services to North America, the Middle East and Africa increased by 19% last year, while short-haul traffic was up by 15%.
Passenger traffic to and from continental Europe - Dublin Airport’s largest market segment - increased by 15% to almost 12.8 million, a new record, thanks to new routes and extra capacity on existing services. A record 8.9 million passengers flew between Dublin and Britain, a 14% increase.
Transatlantic passenger numbers increased by 17% to a record 2.5 million, while passenger traffic to other international destinations – mainly the Middle East and Africa - increased by 25% to a record 805,000.
More than one million passengers transferred or transited through Dublin Airport - also a new record. Transfer passenger numbers increased by 27% as Dublin Airport continued to become a significant hub for transatlantic transfers.
Said Mr Harrison: “Growing Dublin Airport as a hub for transfers brings major benefits to the Irish economy.
“A regular flow of transfer traffic underpins the economic viability of connecting long-haul and short-haul services, and also makes it more likely that Dublin Airport will add additional transatlantic routes and extra flights on existing services, thereby improving Ireland’s overall connectivity, which is hugely positive for tourism and trade.”
Between 2010 and 2015, Dublin Airport transatlantic passenger numbers have increased by 66% and 15 new transatlantic services have been added.
More than one million passengers availed of the US preclearance facilities at Dublin Airport during the year - also a new record. Mr Harrison said Dublin is currently the only major airport in Europe to offer US Pre-Clearance, a service which is hugely convenient for US-bound passengers.
The press conference also heard that Dublin Airport is currently evaluating plans for the development of a new runway, which will be an essential enabler for the Irish economy for many decades to come.
A second parallel runway has been part of the Dublin Airport local area plan since the 1970s. Planning permission for a new runway was granted in 2007, but the project was put on hold due to the economic downturn.