EU airports showed an increase averaging +4.6% in passenger traffic, with those national markets most affected by the sovereign debt crisis now all back in growth mode. Passenger traffic at non-EU airports reported an average increase of +11.8%, as ever driven by extremely dynamic growth in Turkey, Russia, Iceland and also Israel.
BRUSSELS – European airport trade body, ACI Europe released its traffic results for the month of January across the European airport network. This first indication of the air traffic performance in Europe reveals a promising beginning to the year with passenger traffic growth at Europe’s airports reporting an increase of +6.3% compared to January 2013.
EU airports showed an increase averaging +4.6% in passenger traffic, with those national markets most affected by the sovereign debt crisis now all back in growth mode. Passenger traffic at non-EU airports reported an average increase of +11.8%, as ever driven by extremely dynamic growth in Turkey, Russia, Iceland and also Israel. It is worth noting that Istanbul-Ataturk airport jumped to the third position amongst the busiest European airports, after London-Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airports. Aircraft movements for the whole of Europe reported an increase of +2.9%, while freight reported an exceptionally robust result of +9.0%.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI Europe commented “This is a very good start to 2014, even though these figures are helped by comparatively weak ones in January last year. Still, 80% of Europe’s airports saw an increase in passenger traffic in January, the best overall performance in more than 2 years. Freight volumes are now more than 3% above their 2011 levels, which also confirms a renewed market dynamic. The fact that airlines are cautiously adding more capacity should help sustain further growth in air traffic in the coming months.”
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 +5.2%, +7.8%, +5.6% and +7.0% respectively when compared with January 2013.
Airports that experienced the highest increases in passenger traffic per group, when comparing January 2014 with January 2013 were:
- Group 1 Airports – Istanbul IST (+14.8%), Antalya (+10.4%), Moscow SVO (+10.3%), Amsterdam (+6.7%) and London LGW (+6.6%)
- Group 2 Airports – Istanbul SAW (+43.6%), Ankara (+20.8%), St Petersburg (+16.0%), Izmir (+15.1%) and Lisbon (+10.4%)
- Group 3 Airports – Kiev (26.4%), Lanzarote (+17.1%), Birmingham (+10.6%), Catania (+9.7%), Bologna (+9.7%) and Gran Canaria (+9.7%)
- Group 4 Airports – Bucharest BBU (+93.0%), Vatry (+91.3%), Santorini (+44.5%), Rome CIA (+38.0%) and Kaunas (+36.7%)
The ‘ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report – January 2014’ includes 187 airports in total representing approximately 88% of European air passenger traffic.
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