The recession may be hitting Irish retailers, but record numbers of Irish people are flying stateside to get more bang for their buck, the Sunday Business Post reports.There were 1.4 million transatlantic trips (arrivals and departures) between Ireland and US cities from January to September this year, according to new figures from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA). This represents a 22 per cent jump on the same period last year.
Continental Airlines, which operates a twice-daily service between Dublin and Newark (New Jersey) and a daily service from Shannon, said it believed its strong passenger traffic out of Ireland would continue through Christmas and into the new year. ‘‘The load factors on the Ireland routes for the year to date are in excess of those for our transatlantic routes as a whole, which are 77.7 per cent,” said Bob Schumacher, the airline’s senior director for Ireland and Britain.
