Air travel numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels but a travel expert warned it will be the summer before we can say whether levels have been fully restored.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office, show in November over 1,340,400 passengers arrived in Ireland from overseas, a rise of 70.6% compared to November last year.

Of this, 1,292,800 passengers arrived by air and 47,600 by sea last month.

Gregg Patrick, statistician in the Tourism and Travel Division within the CSO, said the increase seen last month compared to even November 2020 was "even more substantial" when just 103,900 passengers arrived into the country.

He said: "Passenger arrivals have effectively returned to pre-pandemic levels for the first time since the Covid crisis, being just 0.8% lower than November 2019, when 1,351,400 passengers arrived from overseas.

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"The recovery is also spread across all major routes, with transatlantic traffic up most. In relative terms, there were three passengers arriving on transatlantic routes in November 2022 for every one passenger in November 2021."

Travel expert Eoghan Corry said it will be the summer before '"we can make any judgement" if the number has definitively returned to pre-pandemic levels.