Dublin Airport has seen an impressive year in 2024, with its cafes serving more than 2.5 million cups of tea and coffee to passengers – equating to a cup being poured every 12 seconds.
The airport, which will celebrate its 85th anniversary in January, has experienced significant growth since it first opened in 1940, initially designed to accommodate just 100,000 passengers per year.
This year, Dublin Airport also sold over 1.5 million pints of Guinness and passengers consumed an average of one full Irish breakfast every minute. The top-selling snack was Tayto crisps, with over 500,000 packets sold, and Toblerone was the most popular chocolate, with 72 tonnes sold—equivalent to 72 family cars.
Despite the passenger cap of 32 million, which was imposed as part of planning permissions for the second terminal in 2007, Dublin Airport handled record traffic. In 2024, more than 171 days saw over 100,000 passengers passing through the airport, and an application to increase the passenger cap to 36 million annually has been submitted.
In addition to the busy year, Dublin Airport's lost and found department handled almost 19,000 items, with luggage being the most frequently lost item. Notably, 550 wedding and engagement rings were handed in, with over 100 remaining unclaimed.
