Editing Transport in Ireland (section)

==Aviation==
{{main|List of airports in the Republic of Ireland}}
[[File:Irish Airports.png|thumb|Irish airports]]

Ireland has four main international airports: [[Dublin Airport]], [[Cork Airport]], [[Shannon Airport]] and [[Ireland West Airport]] (Knock). Dublin Airport is the [[World's busiest airports by international passenger traffic|busiest of these]] carrying almost 35 million passengers per year;<ref>{{cite web|title =Passenger Numbers at Irish Airports – 2002 to 2015|url =https://www.carhire.ie/airportpassengernumbers.php|access-date =19 February 2016|archive-date =21 March 2017|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20170321010528/https://www.carhire.ie/airportpassengernumbers.php|url-status =live}}</ref> a second terminal (T2) was opened in November 2010.<ref>{{cite web|title =Dublin airport's T2 unveiled|work =Irish Times|date =19 November 2010|url =http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1119/breaking17.html|access-date =9 May 2011|archive-date =31 August 2011|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20110831012018/https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1119/breaking17.html|url-status =live}}</ref> All provide services to Great Britain and continental Europe, while Cork, Dublin and Shannon also offer transatlantic services.
The London to Dublin air route is the ninth busiest international air route in the world, and also the busiest international air route in Europe, with 14,500 flights between the two in 2017.<ref name="second-busiest"/><ref>{{cite news |archive-date=10 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180110130714/https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/dublin-london-named-europes-busiest-11827578 |url-status=live |date=10 January 2018 |title=Dublin to London named Europe's busiest air route in new OAG report |url=https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/dublin-london-named-europes-busiest-11827578 |access-date=30 January 2018 |first=Anita |last=McSorley |work=[[Irish Mirror]]}}</ref> In 2015, 4.5 million people took the route, at that time, the world's second-busiest.<ref name="second-busiest">{{cite news|last1=O'Halloran|first1=Barry|title=Dublin-London second-busiest route in world|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/dublin-london-second-busiest-route-in-world-1.2508617|access-date=18 January 2018|work=Irish Times|date=25 January 2016|archive-date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604175949/http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/dublin-london-second-busiest-route-in-world-1.2508617|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Aer Lingus]] is the flag carrier of Ireland, although [[Ryanair]] is the country's largest airline. Ryanair is Europe's largest low-cost carrier,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/04/16/business-eu-iceland-volcano-ryanair_7521491.html?boxes=Homepagebusinessnews |title=Ash makes Ryanair cancel flights until Monday |archive-date=19 April 2010 |via=[[Wayback Machine]] |work=[[Forbes]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419141444/http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/04/16/business-eu-iceland-volcano-ryanair_7521491.html?boxes=Homepagebusinessnews |date=16 April 2010 |url-status=dead |access-date=30 January 2018}}</ref> the second largest in terms of passenger numbers, and the world's largest in terms of international passenger numbers.<ref name=watspax2007>{{cite web|publisher=[[International Air Transport Association]] |year=2008 |title=WATS Scheduled Passengers Carried 53rd Edition |url=http://www.iata.org/ps/publications/wats-passenger-carried.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323213100/http://www.iata.org/ps/publications/wats-passenger-carried.htm |archive-date=23 March 2010 }}</ref> For several decades until 2007 Shannon was a mandatory [[Shannon Airport#The "Shannon stopover"|stopover]] for transatlantic routes to the United States.<ref>{{cite web|title =Shannon stopover to go by 2008|work =Business News|publisher =RTÉ|date =11 November 2005|url =http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1111/shannon-business.html|access-date =9 November 2008|archive-date =22 February 2011|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20110222220447/http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1111/shannon-business.html|url-status =live}}</ref> In recent years it has opened a pre-screening service allowing passengers to pass through US immigration services before departing from Ireland.

There are also several smaller regional airports: [[George Best Belfast City Airport]], [[City of Derry Airport]], [[Galway Airport]], [[Kerry Airport]] (Farranfore), [[Sligo Airport]] (Strandhill), [[Waterford Airport]] and [[Donegal Airport]] (Carrickfinn). Scheduled services from these regional points are in the main limited to flights travelling to other parts of Ireland and to Great Britain. Airlines based in Ireland include [[Aer Lingus]] (the former [[national airline]] of the Republic of Ireland), [[Ryanair]], [[Aer Arann]] and [[CityJet]]. Services to the [[Aran Islands]] are operated from [[Aerfort na Minna]] (Connemara Regional Airport).

Ireland's national airline, [[Aer Lingus]], provides services from Belfast City, Cork, Dublin and Shannon to Europe, [[North Africa]] and North America. Dublin and Cork airports are run by a State body, [[DAA (Irish company)|DAA]] (Dublin Airport Authority). Other Irish airlines are [[Ryanair]], one of the largest in the world, [[CityJet]], [[ASL Airlines Ireland]] and the Aer Lingus subsidiary [[Aer Lingus Regional]]. A number of other operators specialise in general aviation.

=== Airport passenger numbers ===
For 2018 the passenger numbers were as follows:<ref name="cso18">{{cite web |title=Aviation Statistics |url=https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/as/aviationstatisticsquarter4andyear2018/ |publisher=Central Statistics Office |access-date=20 November 2019 |date=18 April 2019 |archive-date=14 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114073315/https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/as/aviationstatisticsquarter4andyear2018/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="caa2018">{{cite web|url=https://www.caa.co.uk/Data-and-analysis/UK-aviation-market/Airports/Datasets/UK-Airport-data/Airport-data-2018/|title=CAA Airport Data 2018|date=13 March 2019|website=caa.co.uk|publisher=UK Civil Aviation Authority|access-date=13 March 2019|archive-date=29 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329195127/https://www.caa.co.uk/Data-and-analysis/UK-aviation-market/Airports/Datasets/UK-Airport-data/Airport-data-2018/|url-status=live}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable" style=text-align:center
|-
! Rank !! Airport !! Runways !! Max. length !! Passengers !! Change<br /><small>2015–2016</small>
|-
| 1 || style=text-align:left |[[Dublin Airport|Dublin]]
| 3 || {{convert|2637|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |31,319,419 || {{increase}} 6.3%
|-
| 2 || style=text-align:left |[[Belfast International Airport|Belfast International]]
| 2 || {{convert|2780|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |6,268,960 || {{increase}} 7.4%
|-
| 3 || style=text-align:left |[[George Best Belfast City Airport|Belfast City]]
| 1 || {{convert|1829|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |2,511,261 || {{decrease}} 1.9%
|-
| 4 || style=text-align:left |[[Cork Airport|Cork]]
| 2 || {{convert|2133|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |2,387,806 || {{increase}} 3.8%
|-
| 5 || style=text-align:left |[[Shannon Airport|Shannon]]
| 1 || {{convert|3199|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |1,677,611 || {{increase}} 4.9%
|-
| 6 || style=text-align:left |[[Ireland West Airport]]
| 1 || {{convert|2340|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |775,063 || {{increase}} 3.5%
|-
| 7 || style=text-align:left |[[Kerry Airport|Kerry]]
| 1 || {{convert|2000|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |365,339 || {{increase}} 8.9%
|-
| 8 || style=text-align:left |[[City of Derry Airport|City of Derry]]
| 1 || {{convert|1969|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |185,843 || {{decrease}} 4.2%
|-
| 9 || style=text-align:left |[[Donegal Airport|Donegal]]
| 1 || {{convert|1496|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |46,537 || {{increase}} 0.0%
|-
|10 || style=text-align:left |[[Connemara Airport|Connemara]]
| 1 || {{convert|600|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |15,322 || {{decrease}} 6.8%
|-
|11 || style=text-align:left |[[Inishmore Aerodrome|Inishmore]]
| 1 || {{convert|490|m|abbr=on}}
| style=text-align:right |8,814 || {{decrease}} 5.6%
|}