daa has said it is more determined than ever to add a flight between Dublin Airport and Sao Paulo after an online public poll identified huge demand for a direct flight between Ireland and Brazil.
Almost 60,000 voters overwhelmingly opted for Sao Paulo as the destination they most like to see directly connected to Dublin Airport.
The poll, carried out on Dublin Airport's social media channels over the past week, identified the places that passengers most want to see connected to Dublin via a direct flight. A short-list of the three most popular routes identified was put to a public vote, which attracted almost 90,000 votes.
More than two thirds of voters (71%) opted for Sao Paulo as their preferred option, followed by the Indian capital city of Delhi (23%) and Cape Town in South Africa (6%).
According to Graeme McQueen, Media Relations Manager at daa, the operator of Dublin Airport: "Direct flights to the likes of Sao Paulo, Delhi and Cape Town are exactly the type of routes that Dublin Airport could be attracting if the 32 million passenger cap was lifted. daa is having conversations all of the time with airlines who want to add exciting new routes at Dublin Airport, but as long as there's a cap on passenger numbers then these potential new routes will be lost to Ireland and will go to other cities overseas - taking jobs and economic growth with them.
"It's no surprise to see Sao Paulo coming out as the most-wanted direct link given we had 140,000 passengers travelling between Dublin and Brazil last year using multiple connecting flights - that was 20% higher versus 2019. Demand is only going to keep growing as the 40,000-strong Brazilian community in Ireland, which has more than doubled in size over the past decade, continues to expand. Airlines need certainty, so if the passenger cap is lifted and a bilateral air service agreement put in place between the two countries, we know it's a route that airlines will be very interested in operating. Raising the cap will also be key to us setting up direct links to other in-demand locations such as Delhi, which would service the 56,000+ people from India who are living in Ireland, as well as the likes of Cape Town, Singapore and many more exciting destinations."
