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Overseas travel for the month of April was almost four times higher than the same month last year, new CSO figures show.<\/p>\nOverseas travel for the month of April was almost four times higher than the same month last year, new CSO figures show.<\/p>\n
April 2021 saw 69,400 overseas passenger arrivals and 73,000 departures, compared with 16,100 arrivals and 17,800 departures in the same month last year.<\/p>\n
Overseas travel significantly increased in April compared with March this year, with the number of arrivals up 13.1 per cent from 61,400 and departures up 9.8 per cent from 66,500.<\/p>\n
However, for every overseas traveler in April 2021, there were 24 in pre-pandemic April 2019, when there were 1,712,900 arrivals and 1,736,400 departures.<\/p>\n
That represents a drop of 95.9 per cent and 95.8 per cent respectively.<\/p>\n
CSO statistician Gregg Patrick said: \u201cThe April 2021 statistics show that continental routes contributed most to the passenger traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome 40,100 passengers arrived on continental routes and 37,300 passengers departed on continental routes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy way of contrast, 21,600 passengers arrived on cross-channel routes and 28,000 passengers departed on cross-channel routes.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust 3,300 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes and the same number of passengers departed on these routes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apart from Britain, which accounted for all cross-channel routes, the most important countries for overseas travel in April 2021 were the Netherlands (7,300 arrivals, 6,100 departures), Spain (6,300 arrivals, 5,000 departures) and Poland (4,700 arrivals and departures).<\/p>\n
Of the 69,400 persons arriving in Ireland in April 2021, 88.5 per cent, or 61,400, arrived by air and 11.5 per cent, or 8,000, arrived by sea.<\/p>\n
Of the 73,000 persons departing Ireland, 84.3 per cent, or 61,500, departed by air and 15.7 per cent, or 11,500, departed by sea.<\/p>\n
The continental route accounted for most passenger traffic, with 57.8 per cent of arrivals, or 40,100, and 51.0 per cent of departures, 37,300.<\/p>\n
The cross-channel route was next busiest, with 31.2 per cent of arrivals, or 21,600, and 38.3 per cent departures, 28,000.<\/p>\n
The transatlantic route saw just 4.8 per cent of arrivals, or 3,300, and 4.6 per cent of departures, 3,300.<\/p>\n
So far this year 293,700 people arrived in Ireland from overseas and 311,400 people departed.<\/p>\n
This compares with 3,101,300 arrivals and 3,063,100 departures in the same period in 2020, and 5,579,300 arrivals and 5,575,700 departures in the same period in 2019.<\/p>\n