The number of passengers arriving into Dublin Airport increased by 15% last week.
Over 13,000 Irish residents returned home from abroad, while nearly 10,000 foreign residents flew into the country.
It marks a 3,000 passenger increase on last week.
The numbers are expected to increase in the weeks leading up to July 19th, when Ireland is due to implement the new EU Digital Green Certificate.
The cert will allow people to travel anywhere in the EU – provided they are fully vaccinated, have fully recovered from COVID or undergo a negative COVID test.
It was rolled out right across the EU yesterday – in every country but Ireland.
Eoghan Corry, Editor of Air and Travel Magazine, told Newstalk he no longer expects the Government to be ready to roll it out on July 19th.
“We are the last country to be implanting it and with no real clear idea of what it will look like,” he said.
“So, it is a big ask to deliver it in two-and-a-half weeks and we have no visibility as to whether we will actually be ready to go and certainly a lot of people are actually delaying their travel plans because of that uncertainty.”
He said noises from Government in recent days suggest officials are looking to delay the rollout.
“We had more international bookings in May than we’ve had in the recent weeks in June,” he said.
“Once we got a date on July 19th there was a lot more clarity around than what we have had over the last couple of weeks.
“We have had different members of the Government saying different things and raising issues like queues at airports – almost like they are looking for some sort of excuse not to roll it out.”
Yesterday, Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson labeled the Government a shambles over its failure to roll out the cert on time, noting that Ireland is “paddy last as usual in Europe.”
It comes as the Health Minister prepares to sign off on a new plan to accelerate the vaccine programme.
Under the plan, people under the age of 50 will be given the chance to sign up for AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson to get their vaccine faster.
