Traffic figures for the beginning of the new year reveal improving signs of recovery at European airports. The overall passenger traffic at European airports increased by +3.9% in January 2010 compared with January 2009. The overall freight traffic among European airports increased +20.2% in January 2010 when compared with the corresponding month in 2009. The overall figure for movements at European airports decreased -2.2% in January 2010 when compared with January 2009.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI Europe commented “These January figures confirm the improvement of the last months. However, we are still at -8.5% for passenger and -10.1% for freight compared to January 2008, so quite some distance from where we were.”

He added “What these figures also reveal is an increasing gap between a dynamic recovery for freight traffic and a much more modest one for passenger traffic. This mainly reflects an export-driven economic recovery for Europe, with rising unemployment and moderate domestic consumption. With airlines - especially legacy carriers - focusing on yield recovery and still wary of adding capacity, this two-speed recovery is likely to remain a pattern for the months ahead.”

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 increase of +2.2%, +4.1%, +2.4% and +4.2% respectively when compared with January 2009. The same comparison of January 2010 with January 2008 demonstrates an average decrease of -8.0%, -9.1%, -9.2% and -7.8% respectively. Examples of airports that experienced the highest increase in passenger traffic per group, when comparing January 2010 with January 2009, include:

1. Group 1 airports – Istanbul (+18.3%), Rome FCO (+13.5%), Madrid-Barajas (+9.6%) and Frankfurt (+3.5%)
2. Group 2 airports – Moscow DME (+34.1%), Moscow SVO (+23.2%),
Athens (+10.6%), Milan MXP (+9.9%)
3. Group 3 airports – Moscow VKO (+36.9%), Antalya (+31.4%),
St Petersburg (+27.6%) & Milan BGY (+15%)
4. Group 4 airports – Ohrid (+68.2%), Charleroi (+35.8%),
Brindisi (+33.6%) and Bari (+29%)

The 'ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report - January 2010' includes 110 airports in total. These airports represent nearly 80% of total European passenger traffic.