JULY WAS THE busiest ever month at both Cork and Dublin airports.

Cork Airport welcomed 378,000 passengers, 15% increase on July last year, while Dublin Airport greeted 3.75 million passengers, a 6.9% increase.

Every day of July saw over 100,000 passengers use Dublin Airport, with more than 120,000 passengers landing and taking off on 17 days of the month.

Airport operator daa said the increase in passenger numbers was the result of high numbers of tourists visiting this summer, as well as high numbers of Irish residents going on holidays abroad.

Airport operator daa says that 95% of those passengers got through security in less than 20 minutes.

The busiest day at Dublin Airport last month was Sunday, 27 July, when 126,620 passengers passed through.

Numbers passing through Dublin Airport during the peak summer months are on track to exceed 11 million this year. So far in June and July, a total of 7.3 million passengers used the airport.

Kenny Jacobs, CEO of daa, said the numbers are a reminder that the passenger cap is “outdated”.

Daa previously applied to Fingal County Council to raise the cap from 32 million to 40 million passengers in December 2023.

The cap on passenger numbers was a condition of planning permission for Terminal 2 in 2007.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has previously said it is “imperative” the passenger cap is lifted. 

Today, Jacobs called the cap a “fallacy”, as the airport is now expecting as many as 36.2 million passengers to pass through by the end of the year – more than initally forecast.

“The growing numbers are a stark reminder of the fallacy of having an out-dated cap on passenger numbers and of the need for the government to follow through on its commitment to do ‘whatever we can’ to remove the needless restriction,” Jacobs said.

“We, once again, encourage the government to share the solutions under consideration and the timeline to get this done.”

The Attorney General has provided legal options to Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien on the Dublin Airport passenger cap.

“I have received initial advices from the Attorney General’s office in relation to options that would be available there on a legislative basis. None of them are easy, I would say that. But we’re working through them,” O’Brien said in June. 

At Cork Airport, planning permission has been granted for an extra 670 long-term parking spaces.

Planning permission was also recently granted for a new solar farm to be built over its Holiday Blue carpark, which will eventually deliver up to 25% of the airport’s electricity needs, according to daa.

“It’s a clear example of how a local authority can support its airport as a strategic asset—not just in terms of sustainability, but by enabling the conditions for jobs, investment, and long-term regional growth,” added Jacobs.