The unprecedented closure for several days in April of up to 80% of Europe’s airspace caused a sharp and shocking fall in air traffic at European airports. The overall passenger traffic at European airports decreased by -13.5% in April 2010 compared with April 2009. In a contrast which reflects the role of airports as logistical and inter-modal platforms, the overall freight traffic among European airports increased by +14.3% in April 2010 when compared with the…
The unprecedented closure for several days in April of up to 80% of Europe’s airspace caused a sharp and shocking fall in air traffic at European airports. The overall passenger traffic at European airports decreased by -13.5% in April 2010 compared with April 2009. In a contrast which reflects the role of airports as logistical and inter-modal platforms, the overall freight traffic among European airports increased by +14.3% in April 2010 when compared with the corresponding month in 2009. However, this is well below the growth registered for freight traffic in the first quarter of the year (+22,6%). The overall figure for movements at European airports decreased -13.0% in April 2010 when compared with April 2009.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI Europe commented “The volcanic ash crisis has abruptly and completely undone recovery gains achieved in passenger traffic since last December. In that context, the German Chancellor’s latest proposal to tax departing air passengers is not only adding insult to injury, but it is also totally illogical. Given the essential role played by aviation and airports in particular for economic development, such taxes are counter-productive and perversely damaging – especially for local and regional communities”.
He added: “The UK already has a similar tax – falsely labelled as environmental – which may be transformed into a tax per departing aircraft just for the sake of accruing more money to the Treasury. This would only make an already critical situation worse, as taxation would be extended to air freight and would also further deter long-haul route development.”
The accumulated figure for passenger traffic January to April 2010 decreased by -0.3% compared with the corresponding period 2009. The accumulated figure for freight traffic during January to April increased by 22.0% and movements decreased by -4.4% during the corresponding period when compared with 2009.
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/decrease of -13.9%, -15.3%, -12.5% and -12.9% respectively when compared with April 2009.
The same comparison of April 2010 with April 2008 demonstrates an average decrease of -17.7%, -21.2%, -19.7% and -18.1% respectively.
Rare examples of airports that actually experienced an increase in passenger traffic per group, when comparing April 2010 with April 2009, include:
Group 1 airports – Istanbul (+2.6%)
Group 2 airports – Moscow DME (+25.0%) and Antalya (+10.2%)
Group 3 airports – Moscow VKO (+24.6%), St Petersburg (+20.3%) and Ankara (+17.6%)
Group 4 airports – Ohrid (+65.5%), Brindisi (+26.5%), Ibiza (+8.2%) and Bilbao (+3.1%)
The ‘ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report – April 2010’ includes 108 airports in total. These airports represent nearly 80% of total 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.
