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…
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.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
