A record 367.000 passengers passed through Ireland West Airport during the period January to June of this year.
It makes it the busiest six-month period in the airports 38-year history.
The passenger numbers represented a 24% increase on the same period in 2022 and 1% higher than the previous busiest six-month period in 2019.
Over 300,000 passengers travelled between Ireland and the UK during the first six months of the year, an 18% increase on 2022 figures and a 7% increase on the previous busiest six-month period in 2019.
In March, the airport welcomed a new service to London Heathrow with Aer Lingus, whilst Ryanair added extra capacity on services to Edinburgh, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham for the summer period.
The airports services to Mainland and Continental Europe also recorded a significant increase in passenger numbers during the first six months of the year, with a 31% increase on pre pandemic 2019 passenger levels, demonstrating the significant increase in demand for European city break and sun holidays from the airport, amongst people living in the West, Northwest and Midlands regions of Ireland.
Following a strong start to 2023 the airport is forecasting passenger numbers to exceed 2019 levels and reach a record 830,000 passengers for the year. In further positive news, Ryanair launched a new weekly service to Lanzarote in March and in late June announced they will operate a new weekly service to Tenerife this winter from the airport.
