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EUROPE. Passenger traffic at Europe’s airports climbed by +8.2% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2011, Airports Council International (ACI) Europe has reported. Flight movements rose by +4.5% in the same period, with cargo traffic up by +3.3%.
Adjusted to reflect the exceptional impact of the volcanic ash crisis in 2010, passenger growth year to date stands at +4.8% and freight at just +1.6%.
The rate of passenger traffic growth was lower in August, at +4.7%, with the figure for movements up +2.7% in August 2011 when compared with August 2010. Freight traffic fell during the month.
ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec said: “Declining freight traffic is symptomatic of the risk of another recession for Europe, amid weak business and consumer confidence. This bodes badly for passenger traffic in the months ahead, with many airlines having revised their initial capacity plans downwards for the winter.”
He added: “The gap between passenger traffic growth at EU airports (+3.5%) and non EU-airports (+9.6%) reflects market maturity to some degree, but also – worryingly – competitive disparities. Aviation taxes in the UK, Germany and Austria are taking a heavy toll on the industry, especially on regional airports. These countries clearly haven’t grasped that they are shooting themselves in the foot.”
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 increase of +4.4%, +5.7%, +4.4% and +3.4% respectively when compared with August 2010.
The same comparison of August 2011 with August 2009 demonstrates an average increase of +8.0%, +13.0%, +13.1% and +13.6% respectively.
Examples of airports that experienced the highest increase in passenger traffic per group, when comparing August 2011 with August 2010, include:
• Group 1 airports – Barcelona (+19.1%), Istanbul (+13.3%), Amsterdam (+8.9%) and Munich (+4.7%)
• Group 2 airports – Moscow Domodedovo (+20.6%), Moscow Sheremetyevo (+16.9%), Antalya (+15.1%) and Helsinki (+13.3%)
• Group 3 airports – Venice (+43.1%), Kiev (+16.8%), Tenerife South (+13.3%) and Gran Canaria (+12.1%)
• Group 4 airports – Ohrid (+93.5%), Tallinn (+39.5%), SkellefteÃ¥ (+36.2%) and Vilnius (+26.3%)
The ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report for August 2011 includes 166 airports in total.
