Dublin Airport Through the Years

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Dublin International Airport is by far Ireland’s oldest and busiest airport. It remains the arrival and departure point for the majority of visitors to Ireland and offers a range of facilities. When it first opened in January 1940, Dublin Airport was designed to cater for 60,000 passengers a year. In 2006, 21.2 million passengers passed through its gates, which is testament to the growth of the airport itself and the ever increasing popularity of Ireland as a tourist destination.

Dublin Airport started out with just one flight a day to Liverpool. It now serves hundreds of destinations, both within Ireland and around the world. Over 230 million passengers have travelled through Dublin Airport since the first flight took off in 1940.

The airport did not really start to grow until after World War II and by 1947 flights were departing for destinations in Europe, with Dutch airline KLM beginning the first continental service to Dublin.

Within another couple of decades it could be seen that the original terminal building was struggling to handle the volume of passengers passing through it. Work began in 1971 on a new building to cater for an expected six million passengers annually.

Dublin Airport is now engaged in a €1.2 billion capital development programme that will see the construction of a new second terminal by 2009 in addition to a variety of new piers and major improvements to the existing terminal.

The airport now offers all the luxuries and facilities required by the modern traveller. The airport has several luxurious hotels nearby, has great shopping facilities and a number of car hire agencies.
If you need a car on arrival, check out Thrifty Car Rental from Dublin Airport which has a desk in the main arrivals hall. Thrifty offers a good range of vehicles at very competitive prices.

The completion of the second terminal in 2009 will establish Dublin Airport as a major European facility that will be able to cater for the growing number of visitors to the country for years to come.