EUROPE. Passenger traffic at Europe’s airports was up 4.2% year-on-year in January, trade organisation ACI Europe has reported.
This marks a slowdown in the growth dynamic of the past years, with this monthly performance being the lowest achieved by Europe’s airports since summer 2016.
ACI Europe attributed the slowdown to a weaker performance at non-EU airports, where traffic grew 2.6%. Turkish airports suffered a 4.1% decline, “reflecting the country’s economic woes”. There was a 6% drop in traffic at Icelandic airports, following 10 years of exponential growth in passenger traffic at Keflavik airport.
ACI Europe noted that gains remained strong in Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine and Israel – where airports on average achieved double digit growth. The same was true at many Russian airports, including Moscow Sheremetyevo (17.4%), Moscow Vnukovo (11.6%) and Saint Petersburg (14%).
EU airports posted a traffic increase of 4.7%. Airports in Austria (20.8%), Estonia (17.2%) and Greece (10.6%) reported double-digit growth. Growth was also “dynamic” in most of the Eastern part of the bloc, as well as in the Iberian Peninsula, Germany and Luxembourg, ACI Europe said.
Passenger traffic in Sweden fell 2.7%, its fifth consecutive drop. Airports in the UK, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Croatia, and the Czech Republic underperformed the EU average.
Source: ACI Europe.
Europe’s five busiest airports registered a 1.3% rise in passenger traffic, as Istanbul Ataturk’s 2.6% decline brought the average down. However, there was also slower growth at Paris Charles de Gaulle (2.9%), Frankfurt (2.3%), London Heathrow (2.1%) and Amsterdam Schiphol (1.7%).
Capacity expansion by low cost carriers drove exceptional performances at Berlin Tegel (42.4%) and Vienna (24.4%). Other strong increases were posted by: Barcelona (7.1%), London Stansted (7.1%), Milan Malpensa (9.6%), Dusseldorf (15.5%), Athens (8.5%), Edinburgh (9.9%), Palma de Mallorca (19%), Oporto (9.6%), Lyon (8.6%) and Venice (8.6%).
Source: ACI Europe.
During January, airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year (Group 1); 10-25 million (Group 2); 5-10 million (Group 3); and under 5 million (Group 4) reported average adjustments of 3.5%, 6.4%, 2.5% and 3.7% respectively.
The airports that reported the highest increases were:
Group 1: Vienna (24.4%), Palma De Mallorca (19%), Moscow Sheremetyevo (17.4%), Antalya (13.8%) and Barcelona & London Stansted (7.1%)
Group 2: Berlin Tegel (42.4%), Dusseldorf (15.5%), St Petersburg (14%), Kiev (13.6%) and Moscow Vnukovo (11.6%)
Group 3: Thessanloniki (25.5%), Seville (23%), Faro (21.9%), Krakow (15.9%) and Valencia (15.8%)
Group 4: Mikonos (182.9%), Kutaisi (112.2%), Kefallinia (64.5%), Batumi (52.1%) and Caen (50.5%)
