Dublin Airport reported 28.1 million passengers in 2022, a number it said was a 231% increase on 2021 and a recovery to 85% of 2019.
"Passenger levels in the final three months of 2022 totalling 7.1 million – the equivalent to 96% of numbers in the same period of 2019," the airport said in a January 16 statement. Half the year's traffic passed through the airport during the last five months of the year.
Slightly more than 50% of the year's traffic was to and from continental Europe, the airport reported, with Ireland's nearest neighbour, the UK, accounting for a further 7.8 million.
"When you consider that passenger numbers during the first two months of 2022 were very low due to uncertainty around the Omicron variant, the recovery in passenger numbers from March onwards was way beyond the expectations of even the most optimistic of travel forecasters," said chief executive Kenny Jacobs.
Jacobs praised airport security teams for facilitating quick passage through checks for passengers. The airport earlier in the year made international headlines as long security queues saw passenger forced to line up outside terminals.