It’s expected that more than 20,000 soccer fans will arrive the gates at Dublin Airport and and travel onto Poland over the next 12 days making their way to Euro 2012 soccer championships.
The first of the 130 flights, more than a third of which are in addition to the typical June travelers, began departing this morning.
Countless others are travelling to other European airports to get to the tournament.
23 flights are due to depart today and tomorrow in advance of Ireland’s game against Croatia on Sunday.
A further 55 flights are scheduled between Sunday and Thursday for Ireland’s second game against Spain in Gdansk.
And 49 other flights are due to take fans to the final game against Italy in Poznan on 18 June.
Both terminals in Dublin Airport have been decorated in green, white and orange to welcome fans.
Meanwhile, Euro 2012 tickets which were lost in a shop at Dublin Airport by a football fan heading out to the Poland have been picked up by some of his friends.
The tickets belong to 23-year-old Damien Coughlan from Knocklyon in Dublin who dropped them while he was buying a flag at Champion Sports in the Airport but boarded his early morning plane without realising he had left his tickets behind.
The tickets were in Damien’s father’s name but his friends were able to provide a Passport photocopy to reclaim them and to take them on the next flight with them to Poland.
