DUBLIN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Irish airports handled a total of over 38 million passengers in 2019, hitting a record high since 2012, according to figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday.
The number of passengers handled by Irish airports last year represented a 4.2-percent increase when compared with the 36.5 million passengers handled in 2018, said the CSO.
Of all the passengers handled last year, Dublin airport accounted for 85.7 percent, followed by Cork airport (6.8 percent) and Shannon airport (4.2 percent) with the remaining 3.3 percent to be balanced by other airports in the country.
Dublin, Cork and Shannon are respectively located in the east, south and west of Ireland.
In 2019, nearly nine out of every ten passengers travelling on international flights in Irish airports were to or from Europe, said the CSO, adding that the two most popular countries of origin and destination were Britain and Spain.
Outside of Europe, the United States was the most popular country of origin and destination, it said.
The CSO figures also showed that Irish airports handled a total of 145,950 tonnes of freight in 2019, nearly 95 percent of which was international freight. Enditem
