Aerospace

EU airports show strong January traffic rise

Posted 5 March 2015

European airport trade body, ACI EUROPE today released its traffic report for January 2015, providing the first indication of air traffic performance so far this year.

The report is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights: full service, low cost and charter. It reveals that passenger traffic at Europe’s airports grew by an average +4.8%, when compared with January 2014.

Reviewing the result in more detail, passenger traffic in the EU grew by a healthy +5.1% while non-EU airports posted a lower rate of passenger traffic growth (+3.8%) for the first time in nearly six years.

More worryingly, freight traffic across the European airport network – an established bellwether of economic performance - fell by -0.5% with the decrease at non-EU airports (-5.3%) weighing heavily on the overall figure (freight traffic at EU airports fell by -0.1%).

Aircraft movements were up +1.1%, reflecting limited additional airline capacity being put back in the market.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE said “In line with the past year, passenger traffic at EU airports continues to grow dynamically – well above underlying macroeconomic conditions. However, the picture remains very contrasted between national markets – from double digit growth in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Hungary and Belgium down to negative figures in Austria, Slovenia and Finland. Outside the EU, the economic recession in Russia and the military conflict in Ukraine are taking an increasing toll on traffic performance, especially on freight – with the impact felt well beyond airports located in these countries.”

He added “Looking at the months ahead, we are certainly not short of downside risks for air traffic – from failure to reach agreement over Greek debt to the spiral of deflation and geopolitical tensions further escalating. But these past weeks have also yielded some new positives coming from lower oil prices, increased consumer confidence and slightly improving labour markets in the Eurozone. All this means that as long as those downside risks remain in check, traffic growth should hold - at least on the passenger side.”

During the month of January, 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 +3.4%, +6.5%, +5.6% and +5.1%.