European passenger traffic rises +5% year-on-year in April, reports ACI Europe

EUROPE. Passenger traffic at Europe’s airports was up +5% year-on-year in April, trade organisation ACI Europe has reported.

The non-EU market led the growth dynamic, at +10.4%, continuing the trend of recent months. A +13.9% increase in passenger traffic at Turkish airports contributed significantly.

Gains were especially strong at airports in Georgia (+30.5%), Ukraine (+20.4%) as well as in the smaller markets of Macedonia (+17.3%), Montenegro (+15.5%) and Albania (+11.5%), ACI Europe said.

In the EU, growth was +3.4%. This represents a “notable deceleration” compared with earlier months, the organisation said, and was due to a combination of factors. These include labour disruptions, the continued impact of the bankruptcies of Monarch and Air Berlin, and stronger tourism demand to Turkey and Northern Africa impacting some EU leisure airports. It should also be noted that the Easter holiday period started earlier (in March) this year compared to 2017.

Airports in the Eastern and Southern parts of the bloc, along with Finland and Luxembourg, significantly outperformed this average. Conversely, airports in the UK, France and Germany posted the weakest results.

The following capital city airports all registered double-digit growth in passenger traffic: Tallinn (+32.4%), Bratislava (+26.9%), Ljubljana (+19.4%), Riga (+16.3%), Vilnius (+15.3%), Warsaw (+14.8%), Athens (13.7%), Budapest (+13.6%), Malta (+11.4%), Helsinki (+11.9%), and Luxembourg (+11.7%).

The top five European airports saw passenger growth weaken to +2.4% compared to +9.6% in the first quarter. The Air France strike negatively impacted Paris-Charles de Gaulle, with a -3.5% decrease in traffic. There were also lower passenger numbers at London Heathrow (-2.2%). Istanbul Atatürk (+10.7%) continued to post the best performance among the top five, followed by Frankfurt (+5.8%) and Amsterdam Schiphol (+3.0%).

Overall, passenger growth was the most dynamic at smaller and regional airports (less than five million passengers per annum), at +7.6%. Examples include Batumi (+63.3%), Rostov (+21.3%), Bodrum (+20.7%) and Kristiansund (+12.6%) in the non-EU market. In the EU, examples include Bourgas (+135.9%), Kefallinia (+78.6%), Poznan (+43.1%), Corfou (+38.2%), Ostend (+30.8%), Turku (+26.5%), Clermont-Ferrand (+28.6%), La Rochelle (+21.9%), Memmingerberg (+21.9%), Linz (+20.4%), Wroclaw (+17.2%), Genova (+15.8%) and Paphos (+15.2%).

Source: ACI Europe
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During April, 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 +4.1%, +5.1%, +6.4% and +7.6% respectively.

The airports that reported the highest increases were:

Group 1: Antalya (+18.7%), Moscow Sheremetyevo (+14.8%), Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (+11.7%), Istanbul Atatürk (+10.7%) and Lisbon (+9.1%)

Group 2: Ankara (+30.1%), Kiev (+21.8%), Moscow Vnukovo (+19.4%), Warsaw Chopin (+14.8%) and Athens (+13.7%)

Group 3: Naples (+25.8%), Seville (+22.5%), Krakow (+19.2%), Valencia (+18.7%) and Riga (+16.3%)

Group 4: Foggia (+169.7%), Bourgas (+135.9%), Kefallinia (+78.6%), Batumi (+63.3%) and Poznan (+43.1%)

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