Over two million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport last month

The figures from Dublin Airport Authority will come as a welcome boost to the government’s The Gathering campaign which has attempted to attract emigrants and the diaspora back to Ireland this year.

It also means that more than 11.5 million passengers have travelled through Dublin Airport in the first seven months of 2013, up five per cent from the first seven months of last year.

Passenger volumes to and from continental Europe were up six per cent with more than 1.2 million passengers travelling to and from European destinations during July.

UK traffic increased by five per cent with more than 653,000 passengers travelling to and from Britain last month.

There was a big jump in transatlantic traffic with people travelling to and from North America up 16 per cent with 221,000 passengers travelling on this route last month.

Flights to and from the Middle East increased by almost a fifth (19 per cent) with more than 54,000 passengers travelling while passenger numbers on domestic routes were also up by 14 per cent with almost 7,000 passengers taking domestic flights last month.