EUROPE. Passenger traffic at Europe’s airports surged by +9.6% year-on-year in July, trade organisation ACI Europe has reported.
The performance was largely attributed to continued momentum in economic expansion, especially in the Eurozone, as well as contained oil prices and the return of stronger demand for air services in Russia and Turkey.
The EU market reported a +7.6% increase in passenger traffic during the month – slightly less than June’s +8.8%, ACI Europe said. Eastern EU countries remained the “most dynamic”, with almost all of them posting double digit growth – along with Cyprus, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, and Portugal.
Meanwhile, passenger traffic in the Non-EU market grew by +17.5%, ahead of June’s +15.1%. July saw Turkey not only recovering from last year’s traffic losses but also further expanding, ACI noted, boosted by strong demand from Russia.
Europe’s top five airports by traffic saw growth of +6.3%. Istanbul-Atatürk (+17.6%) saw the largest increase, followed by Amsterdam Schiphol (+5.6%), Paris Charles de Gaulle (+5.4%), Frankfurt (+4.4%), and London Heathrow (+1.2%).
During July, 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 +6.1%, +14.2%, +10.2% and +11.3% respectively.
The airports that reported the highest increases in passenger traffic are as follows:
Group 1: Moscow SVO (+22.9%), Istanbul IST (+17.6%), Istanbul SAW (+12.7%), Oslo (+9.4%) and Barcelona-El Prat (+8.0%)
Group 2: Antalya (+64.2%), Ankara (+42.2%), Warsaw WAW (24.7%), St Petersburg (+23.6%) and Birmingham (+17.6%)
Group 3: Keflavik (+39.7%), Kiev (+29.4%), Larnaca (+22.7%), Naples (+20.5%) and Malta (+20.2%)
Group 4: Bucharest (+488.1%), Nis (+366.3%), Kutaisi (+92.2%), Craiova (+85.8%) and Batumi (+73.7%)
