GERMANY. According to statistics released from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) for the period January to June 2003, the number of domestic and international passengers combined in German airports increased by +3.4% year-on-year reaching 32.7 million passengers.
The growth rate was mainly generated by national traffic (up +9.3%) whereas international outbound passenger volumes only grew +0.8%.
A total of 17.2 million passengers flew to or from European countries, excluding Germany, up by +2.1% year-on-year.
Passenger traffic to and from North and South America stood at 2.4 million, up +3.2%. The number of passengers to and from Asia fell by -4.7% to 1.7 million. Passengers on routes to India were up by +24.7% to 200,000. The number of passengers flying to and from Africa totalled 900,000, down by -16.8%.
Due to SARS, certain destinations posted drastic declines for the half year according to FSO, including China (-20.8%) Hong Kong (-42.4%), Singapore (-16.0%), Thailand (-13.9%) and Japan (-11.9%).
