EUROPE. Passenger traffic at Europe’s airports grew by +4.9% year-on-year in the first half of 2016, according to ACI Europe.
Traffic at EU airports climbed by a robust +6.2%. Major markets such as France, Germany and Italy underperformed the EU average while Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain all achieved double digit growth. However, the pace of growth slowed between the first and the second quarter from +8.2% to +4.8%. This affected almost all EU markets – and especially Belgium in the wake of the Brussels terrorist attacks.
Much of that growth was concentrated on secondary hubs and large to mid-sized airports, noted ACI Europe. These included Berlin-Schoenefeld (+39.4%), Cologne-Bonn (+19.8%), Bucharest (+16.5%), Dublin (+13.4%), Barcelona (+12.7%), Birmingham (+12.6%), Budapest (+11.9%) and Copenhagen (+10.9%).
Among the top five busiest EU airports, traffic growth at London Heathrow, Paris CDG and Frankfurt stalled, while Amsterdam-Schiphol (+9.9%) and Madrid (+8.6%) reported strong increases.
EU airports serving leisure destinations also fared well, benefitting from demand shifting away from North Africa and Turkey. This was the case in particular of Bourgas (+25.2%), Varna (+24.3%), Larnaca (+20.8%), Faro (+18.6%), Santorini (+17.9%), Ibiza (+17%), Alicante (+16.1%), Dubrovnik (+15.2%), Malaga (+14.6%), Funchal (+14%), Chania (+14.5%), Gran Canaria (+14.2%), Palma de Mallorca (+11.2%) and Malta (+10.2%).
Non-EU airports post weak demand
By contrast, passenger traffic at non-EU airports was almost flat at +0.5%, dragged down by significant losses in Turkey and Russia. These losses materialised in the second quarter, bringing down non-EU passenger traffic by -3.2%, and worsening in June to -6.9%.
Meanwhile, Iceland reported unprecedented growth – with Keflavik Airport seeing passenger traffic increasing by +34.3% – followed by Macedonia, Moldova, Ukraine and Israel.
ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec said: “Beyond an overall healthy traffic performance at pan-European level for the first six months of the year, these figures reveal a severe slump in passenger demand in the Non-EU bloc affecting mainly Turkey and Russia – as well as a significant growth deceleration in the EU market.
“In both cases, these worrying trends are due to the impact of terrorism and accrued geopolitical instability. Since these traffic figures do not yet reflect the full impact of the Istanbul-Atatürk airport terrorist attack and the failed coup in Turkey, we expect a further worsening of airport traffic performance over the summer and for the remainder of the year. EU airports are also likely to see a continued softening of passenger traffic on the back of lower consumer confidence fuelled by terrorism and the decision of the UK to leave the EU, as well as major full service airlines reining in capacity. The only positive remains the price of oil – which should help limit the extent of capacity cuts and keep low cost carriers in expansion mode.”
During the first six months of the year (H1), 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 +3.3%, +5.4%, +9.7% and +5.8%.
The airports which reported the highest increases in passenger traffic during H1 are as follows:
GROUP 1: Dublin (+13.4%), Barcelona (+12.7%), Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen (+12.0%), Copenhagen (+10.9%) and Amsterdam (+9.9%)
GROUP 2: Cologne-Bonn (+19.8%), Alicante (+16.1%), Malaga (+14.6%), Gran Canaria (+14.2%) and Birmingham (+12.6%)
GROUP 3: Berlin Schoenefeld (+39.4%), Larnaca (+20.8%), Faro (+18.5%), Ibiza (+17.0%) and Bucharest Otopeni (+16.5%)
GROUP 4: Oradea (+283.4%), Liege (+170.9%), Ostend (+127.5%), Iasi (+115.2%) and Ohrid (+82.7%)
During the month of June, average passenger growth was +2.3%, with EU airport traffic growth (+5.1%) counterbalancing losses at non-EU airports (-6.9%).
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 -1.1%, +4.6%, +8.2% and +2.8%.
For June, the airports which reported the highest increases in passenger traffic are as follows:
GROUP 1: Barcelona (+10.0%), Dublin (+9.6%), Copenhagen (+8.9%), London LGW (+8.5%) and Amsterdam (+7.9%)
GROUP 2: Gran Canaria (+22.3%), Alicante (+15.8%), Malaga (+14.2%), Birmingham (+13.2%) and Cologne-Bonn (+12.5%)
GROUP 3: Berlin Schoenefeld (+31.8%), Larnaca (+22.9%), Tenerife South (+18.6%), Kiev (+16.5%) and Faro (+16.3%)
GROUP 4: Oradea (+3,266.7%), Bucharest (+213.7%), Iasi (+111.0%), Palanga (+68.3%) and Chambery (+55.3%)
