EUROPE. Passenger traffic at Europe’s airports was flat in the first three months of 2013 compared to last year, according to the latest results from Airports Council International (ACI) Europe. Aircraft movements (an indicator of airline capacity) at European airports decreased by -5.2%.
ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec said: “This first indication of traffic performance in 2013 clearly reflects the state of the European economy. EU airports registered a -2.1% fall in passenger traffic, on the back of record unemployment and much diminished economic sentiment. Meanwhile, non-EU markets led by Turkey, Georgia, Russia and also Iceland, continue to report impressive, dynamic growth, with an +8.9% increase in passenger traffic.”
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Jankovec added: “The only comfort we can see is that March is looking slightly better than the preceding months, for EU airports. Yet, behind these figures, there is an all-too-evident gap in the attitude of national governments towards air transport. Just look at the way the UK keeps increasing its air passenger tax and faffing over airport capacity, while Turkey actively executes a far-reaching strategy to become a dominant aviation hub – all in support of its global economic ambitions.”
Comparing Q1 2013 with the same period in 2012, 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 + 1.0%, -0.1%, +0.6% and -4.1% respectively.
Comparing the month of March with March 2012, reveals the following average increases across the same 4 traffic groups for airports: +2.6%, +1.2%, +1.9% and -1.7% respectively.
The airports that experienced the highest increase in passenger traffic per group, when comparing March 2013 with March 2012, include:
GROUP 1 airports – Istanbul Atatürk (+23.8%), Moscow Sheremetyevo (+14.8%), Antalya (+11.3%), London Heathrow (+3.9%) and Paris Orly (+2.7%)
GROUP 2 airports РIstanbul Sabiha G̦kcen (+18.2%), St Petersburg (+14.6%), Geneva (+8.2%), Dublin (+7.8%) and Lisbon (+6.7%)
GROUP 3 airports – Bucharest (+34.6%), Ankara (+15.9%), Venice (+12.1%), Warsaw (+10.7%), Izmir (+9.6%) & Budapest (+9.6%)
GROUP 4 airports – Arad (+181.0%), Ohrid (+118.5%), Chita (+55.5%), Chelyabinsk (+42.5%) and Batumi (+38.4%).
The ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report – March/Q1 2013 includes 175 airports in total. These airports represent over 88% of European passenger traffic, said ACI Europe.
For a recent interview with Olivier Jankovec about the state of health of European aviation and airport commercial activities, click here.
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Country by country performance in March against March 2012 |
