Ireland aviation: good geography, good policies

The Republic of Ireland punches significantly above its weight in the aviation market, with airline capacity significantly outperforming the country's size by population.

Based on total seat capacity for the week of 8-Jul-2019, Ireland is the world's number 40 aviation market and number 15 in Europe (source: OAG). This compares with its ranking by population at 121 in the world and 25 in Europe (source: indexmundi.com).

It has three significant 'natural' advantages: its geographic position between Europe and North America, its strong cultural and economic links with the UK, and strong links with North America as a result of the Irish diaspora.

These factors position it well to build on strong point-to-point traffic flows both to its east and its west to act as a transit point between Western Europe and North America. Ireland's natural advantages have been boosted by a longstanding liberal policy stance by its governments and regulators towards aviation, as well as having a history of producing successful aviation leaders.

There must be something in this mix that works. In the ultra LCC Ryanair and national airline Aer Lingus Ireland has Europe's two most profitable airlines by operating margin.

In addition, Ryanair is the continent's biggest airline by passenger numbers.