Dublin Airport over New Year, who doesn’t have their story? The nation of emigrants coming home and going back, the airport buzzing. For the past few weeks, the airport has been ground zero for returnees. It was not just busy with Irish people, it was also full of the enormous immigrant community heading back to Ireland after Christmas at home. And the airport isn’t only jammed at this time of year, it seems to be rammed all the time.
No single location on the island captures the global nature of the Irish economy more than Dublin Airport and fewer public spaces are more democratic, because these days all creeds, classes and ages fly. Dublin is one of the most connected places on Earth, with more flights to more locations than almost any other similarly sized city.
Connectivity is key to a small, open economy. The more connections the better. At a time when many are worried about Ireland’s exposure to a global economy that may be hurtling headlong towards protectionism, be reassured that the airport’s myriad of destinations is a sign of strength, not weakness. The number of flights coming and going is the single best indicator of economic and commercial vibrancy. Perhaps more than any official statistic, the airport’s traffic offers a snapshot of what is going on.
Let’s have a look at the figures.
An Irish economy that caps its airport traffic leaves everyone worse off
The United States needs the world more than it thinks, and that’s no bad thing
The old gatekeepers have lost control of the message. The implication for politics, democracy and society is enormous
Taylor Swift tops the economic charts, electoral victory for Centrist Dads and Apple’s awkward €13bn
In total, Dublin Airport offers flights to some 194 destinations across about 42 countries served by about 45 airlines. This diversity is a testament to the strategic importance of Ireland as a hub for global travel and business. According to data up to the end of October, 28.7 million passengers passed through Dublin Airport until that point in 2024, a 5 per cent rise on the same period in 2023. At that rate it was likely to accommodate more than 33 million passengers for the whole of 2024.
In October alone, 2.9 million passengers came and went, making it the busiest October ever in Dublin Airport’s 84-year history.
Travel is trade, and Dublin is distinguished not just by the volume of passengers but their varied destinations and numerous carriers. Ryanair is the largest airline, with about 763 take-offs each week, followed by Aer Lingus, with Delta, United, American Airlines and JetBlue. Lufthansa flies 28 times weekly to Frankfurt, Germany’s business capital, which prioritises corporate connections. KLM operates 21 weekly flights to Amsterdam, a crucial European business hub. British Airways runs 10 daily flights to London Heathrow and City Airport (LCY), catering to thousands of commuters travelling between two of Europe’s financial hubs. Emirates and Qatar Airways operate 14 flights weekly to the Middle East, itself a hub carrying people further to Asia and Australia.
Naturally given our climate, sun destinations remain a key feature, with loads of flights to the likes of Malaga, Alicante, Tenerife and Faro. Ryanair alone operates 234 weekly flights to Europe’s sun destinations. From a macroeconomic point of view, the vast range of traffic in and out of Dublin reveals an economy which is deeply plugged in to the world economy.
The economy is driven by humans, our endeavours and our projects, the more of us who are coming and going, interacting with others, the more likely this economic energy will create new products, new ventures and new opportunities
I recently visited Glasgow and couldn’t help noticing the difference between both cities’ airports. If we compare Dublin Airport with Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city in a similarly sized economy, we see completely different travel patterns. The vast majority of flights from Glasgow are to sun spots rather than business centres.
The reason being connected is important for economic growth is that connectivity reveals commercial diversity – meaning the number of different things a country does with different people. And diversity is the key to economic resilience. In a diverse economy, if one industry, company or sector goes through a retrenchment there are other, unrelated ones to take up the slack. For example, finance is different from pharma, which is different from construction, which is different from biomedics, which is different from tech, which is different from agriculture and tourism. The more diversity, the more innovation and the more people coming and going, the more ideas are percolating and the more innovation is likely. A diverse region is a resilient region.
The more diverse an economy, the more interactions, people, networks and capital moving in and out, the more ideas, products and services are produced. A healthy economy is vibrant and international, the more exuberant and international the better. As the economy evolves and grows, rolling with various punches, the most diverse region succeeds because it doesn’t become over-dependent on any single thing. For the essential process of innovation, diversity offers more options, combinations and novel possibilities for commercial cross-pollination. New products are usually fashioned out of things that are adjacent or close at hand, so the personal computer leads to innovations in microchips, leading to the mobile phone, on to the smartphone and it spawns an entire new series of social-media apps that change the way people consume information.
No one could have predicted this chain of events. This is how economic growth happens – unpredictably. But what we know is that dependency on one product or one region is never a good idea. As your granny would say, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The economy works best on the same basis.
The next time you are flying out of Dublin and scanning the flight information board, just take in the number of destinations, the number of regions, countries and continents and think of all the people coming and going. Consider all the ideas, schemes and plans, the commerce, the deals and the dreams.
(I’m aware of the environmental arguments against flying, but that should probably be the subject of another column.)
The economy is driven by humans, our endeavours and our projects. The more of us who are coming and going, interacting with others, the more likely this economic energy will create new products, new ventures and new opportunities. A small, open economy that caps the growth in traffic from its airport is not simply capping numbers but limiting the number of connections between the country, its people and the wider world, leaving everyone worse off.
When assessing the dynamism of the Irish economy, forget the official data, look up at the screen in the airport and marvel at just how plugged in Ireland is to the globe.