Traffic through Shannon Airport fell by 28% in July. Flight activity levels at Dublin were down 0.7% year-on-year and 3.6% at Cork.

According to the Irish Aviation Authority there were 7,800 commercial flights at Shannon in the first six months of the year, 6,480 fewer than the same period last year, representing a 45% drop.  In the same period, Cork fell by almost 12%, and Dublin by 15%.

Analysts have said that the main reasons for such a decline in traffic at Shannon is due to Ryanair’s decision to pull many of its flights to holiday destinations, the loss of some transatlantic services and fewer stopovers by US military aircraft.

 According to the IAA,  although commercial terminal traffic at the airports is continuing to decline against comparable figures in 2009, the rate of decline during 2010 continued to recede last month.

The IAA said en route traffic movements in Irish-controlled airspace for July increased almost 6% on comparable figures for July last year.  It  said that  this continues a positive trend during 2010 with en route traffic movements also showing growth of 5.1% in March 2010 and 1.6% in June 2010.

It also said the latest available traffic forecast from Eurocontrol estimate that European traffic will experience a growth rate of 0.8% for 2010.