Dublin Airport handled 3.34 million passengers in September 2026, matching last year’s record month and pushing year-to-date traffic 4 % higher at just under 29 million travellers. The daa released the figures on 15 October via the aviation portal Routesonline, noting that 37 % more passengers connected onward through Dublin compared with September 2025. Transatlantic traffic grew to 493,000 passengers, buoyed by Aer Lingus’s expanded U.S. schedule. To keep pace, daa will this week file an amendment to planning permission to add an extra storey to Terminal 2’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) pre-clearance facility, improving circulation space and enabling a future fixed passenger link to Pier 4. For global mobility teams, a larger CBP facility promises shorter queues and more predictable connection times for U.S.-bound assignees – a critical factor given tight layovers to hub cities such as Chicago and New York. Construction is slated to start in Q2 2027, subject to approvals, and the daa says the project will meet zero-emission building standards. September’s figures highlight sustained demand from business and conference travellers: 26 of the month’s 30 days saw more than 100,000 passengers, and the most-travelled routes were Heathrow, Amsterdam and Manchester, underlining Dublin’s role as a European transfer node. However, with the EU court’s passenger-cap ruling on the same day, daa warned that continued growth will depend on the Government securing approval to raise the statutory ceiling or risk “choking off Ireland’s international connectivity at a critical moment for trade”.
Source: Routesonline / Dublin Airport
