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“All MAp’s core airports showed an improved performance in April when compared with recent months.“ |
Kerrie Mather CEO Macquarie Airports |
INTERNATIONAL. Sydney Airport posted a +1% year-on-year rise in passenger traffic in April, as the timing of Easter boosted the airport’s figures. The +1% rise in passenger traffic at Sydney Airport took passenger numbers to 2.71 million in the month, with international traffic rising +3.7% and domestic traffic up +0.2% compared to April 2008.
Parent company Macquarie Airports, which reported April traffic results for its core portfolio, said the combined data for March and April suggested “some moderation in the traffic declines seen earlier in the year”.
At Sydney Airport, New Zealand was the major market which grew (+11%) together with growth from the US (+3%), China (+10%), India (+3%), Canada (+2%), Germany (+12%) and France (+10%). Australia (-1%), Japan (-12%) and Korea (-14%) were the major markets that declined.
Copenhagen Airport posted a -9.6% decline in traffic for April, compared to the same month last year, with the figure hitting 1.63 million. International traffic outperformed the average, falling -3.3% with domestic traffic down by -12.8%.
The slower decline in passenger numbers compared with recent months has been aided by the shift in the Easter holiday, said Macquarie Airports. Underlying traffic has benefited from new capacity replacing the lost Sterling services following that carrier’s collapse last year, though these were partially offset by SAS capacity reductions as part of its new strategy.
Brussels Airport posted a -5.4% drop in passenger numbers to 1.52 million, with extra-EU traffic up +0.6% and intra-EU traffic down by -8.5%.
Bristol Airport traffic dipped by -14.4% year-on-year to 417,000 passengers in April. International traffic fell by less than the average, at -11.5%, with domestic trafic down -5.5% and charter traffic plunging -40.5%. This was due to the loss of XL Airways and a reduction in capacity by Thomson Group.
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Macquarie Airports (MAp) Chief Executive Officer Kerrie Mather said: “All MAp’s core airports showed an improved performance in April when compared with recent months.
“The underlying improvement is due in part to the new summer schedules, which commenced on 29 March, and which benefit from seat increases when compared with the winter schedules.
“We are also pleased to note the recent announcements by several low cost carriers of additional capacity. In Europe, for the next winter schedule, these include the doubling of easyJet’s capacity to Berlin from both Brussels and Copenhagen and new services by both Norwegian and Cimber Sterling at Copenhagen. These announcements continue the strong growth of low cost traffic since both airports pursued their low cost terminal strategies.
“At Sydney, Tiger Airways has followed up the announcement of a Sydney-Melbourne service with a decision to offer a daily service between Sydney and Adelaide from July, further expanding passenger choice on important capital city routes.”
MORE STORIES ON MACQUARIE AIRPORTS
Strong commercial performance lifts Macquarie Airports’ full-year results – 25/02/09
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