Record 36.4 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in 2025

James Cox

More than 36 million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in 2025, making it the airport's busiest year ever.

The numbers are up five per cent on 2024 and well in excess of the 32 million a year passenger cap.

The passenger cap is the focus of legal action while there have been widespread calls for it to be scrapped.

The airport handled 255,000 flights over the last 12 months, with London Heathrow, Amsterdam and Manchester the top destinations.

A total of 36.4 million passengers travelled through the airport in 2025, the total number included 1.7 million transfer passengers, which was down three per cent on the previous year.

The number of passenger numbers going through Dublin Airport has increased by 46 per cent since 2015.

Airport operator DAA said the year included a total of 215 days with more than 100,000 passengers, representing 59 per cent of the year and a 25 per cent increase on 2024.

Dublin Airport managing director Gary McLean said that up to 10 years ago, it never handled more than 100,000 passengers in a single day.

"Fast forward to 2025 and three out of every five days saw 100,000 plus passengers moving through our terminals, while we also recorded our busiest ever day on Sunday, August 10th when 130,427 passengers went through smoothly. Our terminals and road network handled those numbers comfortably, helped by the continued progress in encouraging passengers to use non-private car methods to get to and from the airport, with more than half using public transport."

Mr McLean added: "The strong passenger numbers in 2025 are indicative of the huge demand that’s there to fly in and out of Ireland and also of the importance of ensuring that Dublin Airport, as the island’s main gateway, has the capacity and infrastructure needed to meet the needs of our fast-growing population. Transatlantic activity was strong in 2025 with numbers processed by our US pre-clearance facility in Terminal 2 exceeding 2 million in a 12-month period for the first time ever."