Ireland’s Dublin Airport has shown an year-on-year increase of 11% in air traffic during August, making its case for an additional runway.
According to the figures released by Irish Aviation Authority, the airport recorded 585 commercial movements on an average day while the Cork and Shannon airports recorded 64 and 56 daily flights, respectively.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Irish Aviation Authority CEO Eamonn Brennan said: "These latest figures show that Dublin continues to record very strong growth and has now returned to pre-downturn levels.
"Looking to the future, the IAA believes that the development of a parallel runway at Dublin is crucial to ensuring its continued growth and development as a secondary international hub."
Earlier this month, Transport Minister Pascal Donohoe hinted at a second runway at the Dublin Airport, while launching the country’s aviation policies to maintain Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports under State ownership.
The traffic at the airport increased by 15% in the first half of the year.
The previous plans to construct an additional runway at the airport were abandoned during the recession, but the operator
holds a valid permit to construct a new east-west runway.
According to the IAA report, the international arrivals and departures at the State airports was up by 6.6%, equating to an average of 705 flights a day in August in comparison with the previous year.
The total flights in Irish airspace have increased by 7.4%, an average of 1,776 daily flights.
The busiest day in the Irish airspace was 20 August when 1,875 flights were serviced.
