According to the latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office today, overseas travel has substantially increased for August 2020, compared to July of the same year.
August 2020 saw 362,600 passengers arriving to Ireland on overseas routes, a 59.5% jump from July’s figures. 328,200 passengers departed Ireland on overseas routes, up 19.2% in the month.
Commenting on the latest figures, statistician Gregg Patrick, said that continental routes contributed most to the passenger traffic, explaining: “Some 228,700 passengers arrived on continental routes and 186,000 passengers departed on continental routes. By way of contrast, 112,600 passengers arrived on cross-channel routes and 125,400 passengers departed on cross-channel routes. Just 11,600 passengers arrived on transatlantic routes and 7,800 passengers departed on these routes.”
The figures show that, apart from Great Britain (which accounts for almost all cross-channel routes), the most important routing countries for arrivals in August 2020 were Spain (33,600), Poland (31,700) and Italy (27,300).
These three countries were also the most important for departures, after Great Britain.
Mr Patrick concluded: “When we look at the year-to-date picture (January-August 2020), the statistics show 3.8 million overseas passengers travelled to and from Ireland. This compares to almost 14 million overseas passengers in the same period on 2019, a decrease of almost 73%. This illustrates the continuing and dramatic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international travel to and from Ireland”.
Source: www.businessworld.ie