The overall passenger traffic at European airports increased by +2.0% in April 2012 compared with April 2011. However, the overall freight traffic among European airports remained negative at -4.2% in April 2012 compared with April 2011. Aircraft movements (an indicator of airline capacity) at European airports also decreased by -1.8%…
The overall passenger traffic at European airports increased by +2.0% in April 2012 compared with April 2011. However, the overall freight traffic among European airports remained negative at -4.2% in April 2012 compared with April 2011. Aircraft movements (an indicator of airline capacity) at European airports also decreased by -1.8%.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI Europe commented “Passenger traffic at EU airports has stalled with a meagre +0.6% growth in April, showing once again the impact of the European debt crises and weakening economies in Western and Southern Europe. Even resilient major EU hubs are seeing passenger growth weakening below the 3% mark, also reflecting slowing economies elsewhere – notably in the US, China, India and Brazil. As the Eurozone seems to be approaching its moment of truth, businesses and consumers are holding their breath – which does not bode well for the summer season at many European airports.”
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 +1.5%, +2.4%, +2.7% and +1.8% respectively when compared with April 2011.
In terms of the year to date, comparing the first 4 months of 2012 with the same period in 2011 reveals an average increase of +3.4%, +3.7%, +1.5% and +2.2% respectively.
Examples of airports that experienced the highest increase in passenger traffic per group, when comparing April 2012 with April 2011, include:
- GROUP 1 airports – Istanbul IST (+19.8%), Moscow DME (+7.6%), Barcelona (+4.0%), Paris CDG (+2.9%) and Frankfurt (+2.8%)
- GROUP 2 airports – Moscow SVO (+22.5%), Istanbul SAW (+14.0%), Vienna (+9.5%), Geneva (+7.0%) and Nice (+5.6%)
- GROUP 3 airports – Bucharest (+55.3%), Venice (+15.4%), Milan BGY (+15.1%), Warsaw (+14.2%) and Kiev (+11.3%)
- GROUP 4 airports – Batumi (+75.9%), Vilnius (+38.7%), Sandefjord (+32.2%), Tbilisi (+28.5%) and Tallinn (+28.4%).
The ‘ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report – April 2012’ includes 169 airports in total. These airports represent over 88% of European passenger traffic.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
