The decrease in Ireland’s domestic air travel between 2005 and 2013
Using CSO data this post looks at how the number of passengers travelling on domestic routes in the Republic has reduced since 2005.
The chart shows the numbers of travellers leaving Irish airports from 2005 to 2013 on scheduled flights. The thicker the line the more travellers are leaving for the region indicated. Flights to domestic airports are highlighted in Orange.
Reduction in Domestic Travellers
At the start of the period, flights to domestic airports were the 4th highest ranked of the nine regions shown, with 934,400 travellers. By 2013 they were the lowest ranked with 49,500 travellers - just 5% of the 2005 figure.
It is commonly thought that the main drivers of this massive reduction were the substantial completion of the country’s motorway network and the severe recession which hit the economy during this period.
Other trends…
Recovery in overall passenger numbers
The highest annual number of departing travellers was reached in 2008 with a total number of 14.3 million. The lowest number was 11.3 million in 2010.
The most recent figures (2013), show a slight recovery to 11.9 million travellers.
Large increase in numbers flying to Africa and Asia
Over the period, numbers flying to Africa went from 23,200 to 328,700. Most of this is due to the much greater volumes of people flying to the Canary Islands on scheduled flights. According to CSO figures there has been a large decrease in those travelling to the Canaries on unscheduled flights during this period.
The equivalent figures for Asia show that passenger numbers increased from 2,100 per year to 322,600 - an average growth rate of 88% per year. Much of this is due to the huge expansion in traffic to the UAE.
Data Source: www.cso.ie.
If you’re interested, check out the data and technical details.