Some of the Costa del Sol’s most iconic beaches are lying half empty despite international travel returning this week.
Normally jammed with tourists in the summer months, Marbella has unsurprisingly seen a huge drop in visitors since the pandemic hit.
These images show dozens of sunbeds at the usually crammed Playa de la Fontanilla and Playa del Faro beaches lying idle.
Even though the skies are open again, just 151,361 people are expected to move through Dublin Airport this week, a drop from 782,867 since the same week in 2019 - before the pandemic began.
Siobhan O’Donnell of the Dublin Airport Authority (daa) added that the average number of planes being used each day is 297, down from 750 on pre-Covid times.
Cork Airport is seeing a daily average of just 1,200 passengers, when it would usually welcome up to 10,000 during the summer months.
Ms O’Donnell added that she hopes this week will be the start of Ireland’s “reconnection with the rest of the world.”
“We are delighted to see our customers coming through the terminal doors once again. It has been a long, tough 16 months for everyone and the aviation industry has suffered hugely from the global pandemic,” she told the Irish Mirror.
“This week represents the start of Ireland’s re-connection with the world and Dublin and Cork Airport will play their part by building their route connections back better and stronger.”
Elsewhere, popular taxi app FREENOW has reported a major surge in people travelling to Dublin Airport this week.
It said that trips to Dublin Airport jumped by 80% since last week, while the number heading to Cork and Shannon Airports increased by 96% and 65% during the same period.
