Aircraft movements for the whole of Europe reported growth of +3.2%, while freight traffic posted a notable increase of +6.3%. Combined, these figures show the continuation of a generally solid expansion of air traffic volumes in Europe.
BRUSSELS – European airport trade body, ACI Europe released its traffic results for the month of May across the European airport network, revealing a robust year-on-year increase of +4.8% in passenger traffic compared to May 2013.
Press releaseEU airports showed an increase averaging +4.4%, while passenger traffic at non-EU airports increased +6.4%, when compared with the same month last year. These results show that the gap between the ‘two speed Europe’ seen over the past 3 years, is narrowing – a reflection of continued economic recovery in the Eurozone.
Aircraft movements for the whole of Europe reported growth of +3.2%, while freight traffic posted a notable increase of +6.3%. Combined, these figures show the continuation of a generally solid expansion of air traffic volumes in Europe – with aviation once again demonstrating its role as facilitator of commerce, tourism and direct & indirect employment growth.
Airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passengers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per year (Group 4) reported an average adjustment of +4.2%, +8.3%, -0.4% and +5.8% respectively when compared with May 2013.
Airports that experienced the highest increases in passenger traffic per group, when comparing May 2014 with May 2013 were:
- GROUP 1 Airports – Antalya (+9.2%), Istanbul IST (+7.8%), Moscow DME (+6.7%), London LGW (+6.5%) and Moscow SVO (+5.9%)
- GROUP 2 Airports – Milan MXP (+35.1%), Istanbul SAW (+27.7%), Athens ATH (+18.5%), Brussels (+16.1%) and Lisbon (+12.1%)
- GROUP 3 Airports – Ibiza (+10.4%), Porto (+9.5%), Lanzarote (+8.7%), Naples (+8.6%) and Tenerife TFS (+8.2%)
- GROUP 4 Airports – Bucharest BBU (+136.9%), Chambery (+111.2%), Santorini (+42.6%), Belgrade (+27.5%) and Skopje (+24.7%)
The ‘ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report – May 2014’ includes 190 airports in total representing approximately 88% of European air passenger traffic.
Photo caption: Athens “Eleftherios Venizelos” International Airport.
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