The Republic of Ireland’s largest international gateway, Dublin Airport, has experienced strong growth in the number of passengers flying to destinations across Australasia and Asia during the past year. The combined indirect traffic was 539,000 passengers, which was a 20 per cent on the previous year, with traffic to Australia up by 32 per cent. The airport does not currently have a direct connection to Asia or Australia meaning that these passengers transit through a European or Middle Eastern hub to pick up an onward connection to their final destination.

Speaking to The HUB ahead of Routes Asia, Vincent Harrison, Dublin Airport's Strategy & Regulation Director said “the continued growth in traffic to Asia in particular, will make it a very attractive option for prospective carriers in the months ahead.”

In the table below, The HUB Daily highlights the largest O&D markets in Asia and Australasia from Dublin Airport and how estimated passenger demand has changed since 2007. The analysis shows the important role that enhanced links to global hub airports have had on the development of improved connectivity to these regions from the Irish capital, in particular links to the fast-expanding Gulf hubs of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

In the space of five years estimated O&D demand to/from Asia and Australasia from Dublin has grown 11.4 per cent with the main growth market being Australia: its share of total traffic has increased from 17.5 per cent in 2007 to 29.5 per cent in 2012 overtaking Thailand as the largest market in the region from/to Dublin from Thailand.

Prior to the recent arrival of the big Gulf carriers, KLM dominated this market in 2007with a 13.8 per cent share of the transfer demand, followed by British Airways (11.9 per cent) and Qantas (11.0 per cent). Now, it is UAE carriers Etihad Airways and Emirates Airline that dominate the market with 26.0 per cent and 24.9 per cent shares, respectively.

Qantas remains a key operator in the market with 8.1 per cent but previous market leaders, Europe’s flag carriers KLM and BA, have seen their shares slip to just 6.2 per cent and 4.8 per cent, but this still represents around 34,000 and 26,000 passengers a year, respectively.