Flights to and from Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports declined in the first three months of the year, new figures show.
The Irish Aviation Authority figures show that commercial flights at the three airports declined by 3.8 per cent in the first quarter compared to same period last year.
While there was a marginal increase of 1.2 per cent in en-route traffic movements, that is the number of flights transiting Irish airspace but not landing here, total air traffic for the first three months was down 1.8 per cent.
For the month of March, total flights in Irish airspace decreased by 1.2 per cent when compared to March 2011. This reduction was attributed to the continued downturn in international arrivals and departures at the three State airports.
There was an average of 1,331 daily flights during March 2012, with the busiest day being the 30th of March with 1,550 flights in Irish airspace.
The number of international arrivals and departures of commercial flights at Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports dropped by 4.1 per cent in the month compared to March last year.
The biggest drop in commercial flights was at Cork airport which was down 8 per cent on March last year with 50 commercial flights a day. Commercial flights at Shannon were down 3.9 per cent while those at Dublin were down 3.6 per cent.
The authority's monthly analysis of delays shows that just 33 aircraft were delayed from January to March 2012 and these delays were all weather related.
