Coronavirus: Dublin airport expects 24m drop in passengers

Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport may fall from 32.9m last year to nine million this year, according to Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) .

The organisation that manages Dublin and Cork airports also estimates Cork's airport footfall to drop to less than one million, down from 2.6m last year.

It added that keeping its airports open with minimal traffic is losing €1m (£910,715) per day.

The Irish government has published a "green" list of countries.

People travelling outside of this green list to the Republic of Ireland from overseas must quarantine for 14 days.

Meanwhile, there were no further Covid-19 related deaths reported in the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday, with the total remaining at 1,764.

There have been 40 more cases of the virus, meaning the number of confirmed cases is 25,929.

The so-called "green list" is reviewed every fortnight

The DAA said that while it welcomes the publication of the green list, the 15 countries named on the list only represented 9% of its traffic in 2019.

It made the comments to a special committee on the Covid-19 response in the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday.

"Given current load factors and frequencies, even if every seat on a green list flight was sold, we wouldn't add much more than 100k to the passenger numbers currently flying in any month - which is less than a single normal day," said the DAA.

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It added that its financial losses are "very significant" right now and that the Irish state must intervene to offset the risk.

"We, like the country and many other businesses, are reliant on borrowings to fund the day to day operation of our business," it said.

"This is simply not sustainable and puts the maintenance and delivery of strategic airport infrastructure for a small open economy at risk."

The activities of the DAA airports facilitate more than 140,000 jobs and support thousands of Irish businesses.

Earlier this month, it emerged that there had been a significant increase in the percentage of Covid-19 cases in Ireland which have come from international travel.

Dublin and Cork airports are the two largest airports in the Republic of Ireland.