Dublin Airport to see busiest St Patrick’s weekend in years with 432,000 passengers

More than 432,000 people are expected to pass through Dublin Airport over the coming St Patrick's Day weekend, according to the airport's operator DAA.

This is up by roughly 80,000 on the pre–Covid figures of 2019 and will amount to the busiest St Patrick’s weekend for Dublin Airport in recent years.

With St Patrick's Day falling this Friday, many Irish people are choosing to avail of the three-day weekend to make a trip overseas with 220,000 passengers forecast to depart between Thursday and next Monday.

As the St Patrick's Festival gets underway along with Ireland’s crunch Six Nations clash on Sunday, 212,000 people are forecast to fly into Dublin Airport across the weekend.

DAA and Fáilte Ireland will ensure a “true Irish welcome” in the terminals at Dublin Airport with a number of Irish dancing groups set to entertain passengers at arrivals.

A dedicated team of Fáilte Ireland ‘Meeters and Greeters’ will be in the T1 and T2 arrivals halls, to assist passengers from all over the world on their way to the festivities.

Dublin Airport is advising passengers travelling on short-haul flights to arrive two hours before their flight and three hours prior to a long-haul flight given the increased traffic across the bank holiday weekend.

Passengers checking in a bag with their airline should also allow up to an additional one hour, DAA said.

Hundreds of events will run across the four days of the festival across the capital and many other cities, towns and villages across Ireland.

Anything up to 500,000 people are expected to attend the main parade in Dublin on Friday while Collins Barracks will serve as the Dublin festival quarter, holding numerous events between Thursday and Saturday night.