European airport traffic growth slow in April
European airport trade association, ACI EUROPE, today released its traffic report for April 2016, which showed that after several months of very dynamic and significant growth, airport passenger traffic across the European airport network in April 2016 reported a somewhat diminished average of +3.0%.
In the EU, the average increase in passenger traffic was +3.7%. Meanwhile, non-EU airports reported growth of just +0.8%.
Freight traffic across Europe grew by +5.5%, the best monthly performance in almost two years – with most of that growth happening at EU airports (+5.8%) rather than EU ones (+1.2%). Aircraft movements were up +2.0%.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said: “The lower growth reported in April for passenger traffic is due to a combination of factors. These include the Easter traffic boost shifting to March this year, the lingering impact of the Brussels terror attacks and reduced capacity at Brussels airport – which led to an almost –26% passenger decrease in the Belgium market – and ATC strikes in France¹.
“Wider security concerns seem to have also contributed to slower growth – although that impact is not widespread and rather uneven in the EU. It has however been visibly weighing on the non-EU market with Turkish airports suffering a sharp decrease in international traffic, while Russia too is seeing lower volumes.”
This ACI Europe report is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights to and from Europe: full service, low cost, charter and others.
During the month of April, 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 adjustment +2.2%, +1.5%, +7.9% and +5.3%.
The airports which reported the highest increases in passenger traffic during April 2016 (compared with April 2015) are as follows:
GROUP 1: Dublin (+10.7%), Istanbul SAW & Amsterdam (+10.1%), Moscow SVO (+9.5%), Barcelona (+8.7%), Paris ORY (+8.4%)
GROUP 2: Cologne-Bonn (+17.8%), Birmingham (+13.3%), Malaga (+11.8%), Manchester (+11.3%) and Gran Canaria (+10.8%)
GROUP 3: Berlin SXF (+34.2%), Fuerteventura (+18.6%), Faro (+16.6%), Tenerife TFS (+16.0%) and Ibiza (+14.5%)
GROUP 4: Oradea (+8,156.8%), Liege (+876.5%), Ohrid (+495.1%), Ostend (+431.6%) and Palanga (+87.3%)
The 'ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Report – April 2016’ includes 206 airports in total representing more than 88% of European air passenger traffic.