European airport traffic growth falls to three year low in August

EUROPE. European airport passenger traffic growth fell to a three-year low in August, increasing by an average of just +2.0%, data from ACI Europe shows.

Passenger traffic at non-EU airports continued to fall, declining -6.2% during the month. The association said this was the main reason for the overall slowdown in growth, which began in April.

Turkey experienced a significant -14.9% drop in demand in the wake of the failed coup last July. There was also weaker passenger demand at Russian airports during August, falling -5.5%.

However, Iceland’s Keflavik airport bucked the trend with +35.4% growth.

ACI Europe said a shift in passenger demand from Turkey to other Southern and Eastern European states resulted in a boost to airports serving prime leisure destinations in countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Portugal and Spain.

Airports registering increases during August included Larnaca, with +21.0% growth; Tenerife-South, which increased +20.7%; and Varna, which saw a +17.3% gain.

In the EU market, airports in the core economies of France and Germany barely grew due to terrorism threats taking a toll on demand – while growth at UK airports remained slightly above the EU average.

“These latest figures for August are essentially telling us three things,” said ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec. “Geopolitical and terrorism risks are increasingly shaping traffic performance for Europe’s airports; tourism & leisure demand remains a key factor for achieving growth and resilience; and low-cost carriers keep driving traffic growth, with medium-sized airports benefitting the most.”

Among the top five European hubs, Amsterdam Schiphol was the only one to record passenger traffic growth, at +7.9%, while capacity-constrained London Heathrow was flat at +0.1%. Paris-CDG, Frankfurt and Istanbul-Atatürk all posted declines, at -2.4%, -5% and -5.3% respectively.