AUSTRALIA. International airport operator Macquarie Airports (Map) announced today that passenger numbers continued to show year-on-year growth across three of its four jointly-owned airports – though all four posted lower levels than June.
CEO Kerrie Mather said: “Passenger traffic for July continued to grow steadily across the majority of MAp’s airports, when compared with the previous corresponding period (pcp), although at reduced rates when compared to June. The pcp comparison reflects rapidly-returning passenger confidence during the second half of 2003.”
MACQUARIE AIRPORTS INTERNATIONAL PASSENGER TRAFFIC: JULY 2004 vs JULY 2003 | ||||
JULY 04 | CHG % ON YEAR | MOVING ANNUAL TOTAL AUG 03-JULY 04 | CHG % ON YEAR | |
| SYDNEY AIRPORT | 828,000 | +13.60% | 9,074,000 | +11.30 |
| AEROPORTI DI ROMA | ||||
Intra EU | 1,162,000 | +26.40 | 10,823,000 | +18.50 |
| Extra EU | 627,000 | +9.20 | 6,218,000 | +12.70 |
| BIRMINGHAM INTL AIRPORT | ||||
| International (non charter) | 415,000 | -6.40 | 4,671,000 | +10.70 |
| Charter | 413,000 | +0.70 | 3,016,000 | -1.50 |
| BRISTOL AIRPORT | ||||
| International (non charter) | 168,000 | +39.50 | 1,718,000 | +23.70 |
| Charter | 148,000 | -0.20 | 1,294,000 | +0.10 |
Source: ©The Moodie Report | ||||
Analysing the individual airports
Sydney Airport was boosted by increasing numbers of Australian and New Zealand travellers – the airport’s two largest nationality markets – with Australian numbers alone growing in excess of + 20% for the sixth consecutive month.
Australian travellers rose +26% on the previous corresponding period (June +37%) and New Zealand travellers were up +16% (June +27%). US travellers rose +1% year-on-year (June +0.2%) and numbers from the UK travellers were down -0.5% (June +2%).
Importantly from a non-aeronautical revenues perspective, growth was again strong in the Asian markets most affected by SARS last year – “although at reduced rates reflecting the rapid recovery last year”.
Chinese passengers grew +63% over last July (June had been up +96% year-on-year) with Japanese travellers increasing 31% (June +93%). Of the markets that experienced a strong rebound immediately post SARS last year, Singapore declined -19% (June -1%) and South Korea eased by -9% (June +1%).
Aeroporti di Roma (AdR)
Importantly from a commercial revenues perspective, traffic from the 10 EU accession countries has been reclassified from extra-EU to intra-EU traffic as of 1 May.
In July, Rome Airport’s traffic was +11.6% above that of last year with a +9.8% increase at Fiumicino and a +38.1% increase at Ciampino.
Turning to international traffic, intra-EU traffic increased by +26.4%, driven by low fare traffic at both airports and the increase in the EU membership. Extra-EU traffic was up +9.2% year-on-year, driven by the addition of significant capacity on transatlantic routes, which have gained new services to Boston, Cincinnati and Detroit and additional capacity to New York. There have also been increases in capacity on other long haul destinations.
New low-fare services started in July to Budapest, Krakow, Warsaw and Dortmund. Maersk and SkyEurope are planning to add services to Copenhagen and Krakow respectively from September. easyJet has also announced it is starting double daily services to Geneva and switching London services from Stansted to Gatwick from 31 October 2004.
Birmingham International Airport (BIA)
BIA handled 949,677 passengers in July, a fall of -4.3% on the same month last year, mainly due to the collapse of Duo Airways on 1 May. However, there has already been some take-up by other airlines of routes formerly serviced by Duo.
Importantly, bmibaby is to open a base at Birmingham Airport. From 7 January 2005, bmibaby will base its first three aircraft at the airport, operating over one hundred flights per week throughout the winter serving nine European destinations: Alicante, Malaga, Palma, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Belfast (International), Knock (Connaught), Geneva and Prague.
International scheduled traffic was -6.4% lower than in July last year. However, traffic increased on some routes. In particular, transatlantic flights saw a +27.6% increase, largely due to the introduction of Continental Airlines’ second daily service to New York/Newark, which began on 15 June. Other scheduled destinations experiencing significant growth included Prague (+71.3%), Milan (+19.4%), Malta (+12.7%) and services to the Irish Republic (+10%).
There was a slight improvement in charter traffic during July (+0.7% on last year). Markets with strong growth included: Turkey (+56.9%), Bulgaria (+36.2%), Mexico (+29.4%), the Dominican Republic (+21%), Italy (+14.4%) and Tunisia (+8.6%).
Other recent route developments include a doubling of services to Newark, and new services to Derry, Tehran, Stockholm, Perpignan, Peshawaw and Galway.
Bristol Airport
Bristol Airport traffic was +22.0% higher than in July 2003. International scheduled flights increased by +39.5% driven by new services to Bergerac, Berlin, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Copenhagen and Toulouse.
Charter traffic fell marginally by-0.2% against a background of consolidation elsewhere in the market. easyJet has announced its winter schedule from Bristol Airport. The airline will be basing an additional aircraft at the airport with new destinations including Budapest, Madrid and Rome daily from 31 October and Geneva daily from December 2004. In addition, Eastern Airways will fly twice daily to Aberdeen starting 1 November.
MORE STORIES ON MACQUARIE AIRPORTS
Retail shines as Macquarie Airports posts strong results at Sydney Airport – 20/07/04
Macquarie Airports posts traffic growth across the group – 19/04/04
Macquarie Airports poised to take advantage of recovery – 26/03/04
