SWITZERLAND. Zurich airport posted a -4.4% passenger traffic decrease in August year-on-year to just over 1.7 million (-18.1% year-on-year in July 2003). Year-to-date passenger traffic has decreased by -10.0%.
Zurich airport is the key location worldwide for The Nuance Group in terms of profitability.
Transfer passengers were down by -11.8% (-29.6% year-on-year in July) to 547,678.
The results varied considerably by region. Passenger traffic to/from European cities was down by -2.5% year-on-year in August (-4.4% year-on-year in July). Similar improvements were seen for other regions. North America increased from -6.7% year-on-year in July to -3.6% year-on-year in August, and Asia Pacific passenger traffic recorded an improved -12.2% (-19.0% in July). The Middle East however saw a continued decrease from +5.5% in July to -3.3% in August.
According to Zurich airport, these figures underline a continuing recovery.
The peaking of the summer season brought an increase of +0.6% in charter traffic, while schedule flights saw a reduction of -0.6% due to lower business demand. Nevertheless in August, Styrian Airways, an Austrian business airline start-up, commenced services from Graz, in co-operation with Swiss.
