Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport increased by 6 per cent to 20.2 million last year, as an extra 1.1 million people used the airport. The increase was driven by a 13 per cent record-breaking jump in transatlantic traffic.
On the back of such strong passenger numbers, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has disclosed that it will pay a €5.6 million rebate in airport charges to a total of 40 airlines that grew Dublin Airport business in 2013 under the Growth Incentive Scheme. This scheme has been extended until 2016.
"Dublin Airport had an excellent performance last year," said Vincent Harrison, managing director of Dublin Airport. "Passenger numbers increased across all areas of the business and Dublin Airport's growth outperformed the European average in every month of 2013."
Mr Harrison said the performance of the transatlantic market was particularly pleasing last year. "We saw a record 1.9 million people flying between Dublin and North America last year, as our airline customers added extra capacity to existing routes and we also saw the start of a new daily American Airlines service to JFK in New York."
Long-haul traffic to the Middle East grew by just over 13 per cent last year and passenger numbers travelling to and from Dublin Airport’s largest markets of Europe and the UK also increased. Transfer traffic saw strong growth during 2013, as transfer passengers increased by 36 per cent to almost 550,000.
Last year was Dublin Airport’s third successive year of growth and the airport’s busiest year since 2009. Looking ahead, Mr Harrison said tha tthe airpot has 16 new services scheduled and significant expansions of some existing services have also been announced.
For example, Aer Lingus is launching services to San Francisco, Toronto, Hanover and Pula; Ryanair will have nine new services including Lisbon, Prague, Bucharest, Basel, Marrakech, and Almeria; Canadian airline WestJet will have a new route from Dublin to St John's, Newfoundland; and Air Canada rouge will operate its new Dublin-Toronto service.
Under its Growth Incentive Scheme, which has operated since 2011, DAA pays an airport charges rebate to each airline that increases its passenger numbers at Dublin during the year. Airlines that increased passenger numbers at Dublin Airport last year and are being paid rebates under the scheme include; Aer Arann, Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Turkish Airlines, Ryanair, SAS, Tarom, and United.
This is the third successive year of Growth Scheme payments at Dublin Airport and during that period, DAA has rebated a total of € 8.6 million in airport charges to its airline customers.
