More than 3.5m passengers went through Cork and Dublin airports in June

That represented a 10% rise compared to last year's passengers numbers in Cork and a 3% rise in Dublin for the same period.

The daa say that the numbers were boosted due to the large amount of tourists arriving into the country for summer holidays, while concerts like Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and Pink aided the total too.

Cork's busiest day was Friday, June 21 while two days later saw just under 120,000 passengers move through the terminals in the capital.

Daa CEO Kenny Jacobs said: "Big events such as concerts are now a big draw for tourists into Ireland and we’ve had no shortage of those all-around Ireland over the past month."

Two new Ryanair summer services were launched for Cork in June, with routes starting up to Rhodes and Zada.

Mr Jacobs said that both were "performing extremely well so far. "

 "Traffic to and from France was considerably higher than last year, with 32% more passengers travelling on services between Cork and France, aided by the increased capacity on the Air France service between Cork and Paris Charles de Gaulle. 

Gateway

"Cork Airport is providing a gateway for tourists from mainland Europe to fly into the south of Ireland and I’m delighted that Lufthansa will operate larger A319 aircraft on their Frankfurt service in July."

Throughout the month, Cork passengers enjoyed an efficient airport experience with an average of five-minute security queue times across the month.

Mr Jacobs added: “This inward tourism is hugely valuable for the whole of Ireland as they arrive into Dublin Airport before heading off to visit and spend money in all 32 counties. Every day in June saw more than 100,000 passengers travelling through Dublin Airport and that trend is set to continue through July and August with demand to fly in and out of Ireland remaining extremely high."

Some 96% of all departing passengers were through security screening in under 20 minutes in June, he claimed.

Strike concerns

While numbers in July are set to reach similar levels, there are already more than 100 flights cancelled in the month due to strikes by Aer Lingus pilots.

The pilots are seeking a pay increase of 24%, which they say equates to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019.

Aer Lingus has said it is willing to offer pay increases of 12.5% or above if "improvements in productivity and flexibility" are discussed.

A Labour Court hearing into the Aer Lingus dispute concluded on Wednesday, with a recommendation from the independent body expected within the next few days.