The figures for this year were also up 1.4% from pre-pandemic travel numbers in January of 2020, when the figure for overseas arrivals was 1.24 million.

The passengers are comprised of both foreign visitors and Irish nationals returning home from overseas travel.

97.2% of the passengers who arrived in January of this year travelled by air, while 2.8% arrived by sea.

The most common place of origin for all inward passengers was Great Britain (447,000), followed by Spain (153,100), the US (81,700), France (80,400), and Germany (65,000).

Only 59,300 passengers arrived or returned from Africa or Asia.

Commenting on the figures, Gregg Patrick, Statistician in the CSO Tourism and Travel Division, said: “The latest Air and Sea Travel Statistics show that 1,252,000 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes in January 2023.

“These passengers, comprising foreign visitors arriving in Ireland and Irish overseas travellers returning home, represented a very substantial increase on January 2022, when 584,100 passengers arrived on overseas routes.

“The increase is even more substantial when compared with January 2021 when just 108,000 passengers arrived on these routes. Passenger arrivals are also higher than pre-pandemic January 2020, when 1,235,100 passengers arrived on overseas routes, representing an increase of 1.4%.

The recovery is seen in both modes of travel (air and sea), although the recovery in air travel is most pronounced, increasing by 115.9% in January 2023 compared with January 2022.

“The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most (126.4%) in relative terms, increasing from 40,200 in January 2022 to 91,100 in January 2023.

“Among the continental routes, Spanish routes remain the busiest, with 153,100 passengers arriving on these routes in January 2023, a 72.2% increase compared with January 2022.”