CSO Transport report 2007

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today published it's report in to transport in Ireland in 2007. The report covers, trains, planes and automobiles. In the aviation section the report lists passenger statistics in the familiar terms as reported by the regional and state airports. There is nothing new in these numbers as they are widely reported. What is interesting is the listing of the top destinations by airport by passenger numbers. Dublin's top 3 are Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick. Cork's top 3 are Heathrow, Stansted and Amsterdam and interestingly Shannon is the only airport with a US destination in it's top 3 of Heathrow, Stansted and New York which also highlights the starkness of Aer Lingus' decision to shift the Heathrow slots from Shannon.

Unglamorous freight statistics are not normally reported in the press since airports tend to be like shopping malls where footfall is all that counts. Nevertheless the freight figures for 2007 make interesting reading.

For the calendar year 2007, Dublin handled 111,025 tonnes, Cork 5,545 tonnes and Shannon 27,008 tonnes. The national / international split is given as 11%/89% for Dublin, 27%/73% for Cork,  and 63%/46% for Shannon. The Shannon split is probably a reflection of the fact that the UPS, DHL and Fedex flights lay over in Shannon during the day , routing through Dublin on the inbound / outbound legs.