Cork Airport is celebrating one of the best years in its 63-year history as a total of 3.1 million passengers flew to and from the airport last year. 2024 marked another successful year of double-digit growth with passenger traffic up 10% on the previous year. Cork Airport closed out the year 2024 as Ireland’s fastest growing airport.
Cork Airport, Managing Director, Niall MacCarthy said “2024 was an excellent year for Cork Airport with new routes and new airlines making our airport the fastest growing airport in Ireland and with the highest customer service standards. In 2025, we’re embarking on a number of capital projects to grow and improve the airport infrastructure and cater for the planned growth we have in the year ahead and the years following. We want to thank our loyal customer base, both in the South of Ireland, the UK and continental Europe for the continuing and growing use of Cork Airport.”
2024 got off to a flying start with passenger traffic during the months of January, February, and March up 14%, 23% and 25% respectively. The start of the summer schedule brought the addition of new routes to Brussels Charleroi, Rhodes, and Zadar by Ryanair, while a Aer Lingus Regional new service to Glasgow commenced as part of the current winter schedule.
These new services, along with increased frequencies and capacity on existing services to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt, all contributed to a bumper year for Ireland’s Gateway to the South.
Some of the best performing routes throughout 2024 included Paris Beauvais, Valencia, Barcelona, Faro, Rhodes, London Gatwick, Malaga, Lanzarote, Palma, and Reus while there were significantly higher amounts of passengers traveling to and from some of Cork Airport’s key European markets.
Passenger traffic to and from Poland increased by 33%; traffic to and from Spain increased by 20%; traffic to and from France increased by 19% and traffic to and from Germany increased by 12%.
Irish Aviation Research Institute © 18 January 2024 All Rights Reserved
