AirHelp, the world’s largest air passenger rights organisation, predicts further chaos for Ireland’s air travel this summer based on flight data from summer 2022 and disruptions faced this year so far.
Flight data from summer 2022 indicates that 45% of 4.47 million passengers faced disruptions from Ireland’s airports. This is up from 2019 levels, where 28% of 5 million air passengers were delayed or disrupted. In summer 2022, more than 132,000 passengers were delayed more than two hours and 43,000 had their flights cancelled entirely. Of these passengers, 100,000 were eligible for compensation.
Most disrupted airports
Dublin Airport, Ireland’s busiest airport, saw 3.8 million passengers purchase flights last summer, with 49% of passengers disrupted and 40,000 passengers with cancelled flights. Dublin Airport saw the fewest flights depart on time last summer, while the most reliable airport was Shannon Airport with 80% of flights undisrupted. Cork and Kerry County airports also fared well, with 76% and 75% of flights departing on time respectively.
2023 air travel not off to a flying start
Flight data from the first quarter of 2023 indicates that more travel chaos could be on the horizon across Europe. In the first quarter of 2023, nearly 32 million passengers (28%) were delayed – a significant deterioration compared with the same period last year, when around 20 million passengers were delayed (18%). Ireland’s disruption rate is below the European average; of the 2.6 million air passengers across 20,000 registered flights departing from Ireland from January to March, 20% were disrupted.
Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO of AirHelp, comments: “Flight disruptions are becoming more frequent in the post-COVID era, demonstrated by last summer’s travel chaos and this year so far. Airports and airlines do not have time to prepare for another peak season, particularly while battling current staffing issues and strike action. The worry for many passengers this summer is that Europe’s travel appetite will exceed that of last year, but disruptions will continue to plummet.”
AirHelp has one of the most accurate collections of flight data in the world, including the number of flights, passengers, disruptions, delays and cancellations from airports and airlines across the globe.
