A report by ACI Europe reveals that passenger traffic at Europe’s airports grew by an average +4.4 per cent in first quarter 2019. The EU market reported growth in Q1, despite the fact that March traffic (+4.1%) was affected because the Easter holidays slipped into April in 2019. The ‘ACI Europe Airport Traffic Report – March & Q1 2019’ includes 238 airports in total representing more than 88 per cent of European air passenger traffic.
Airports in Austria (+21.6%) and Estonia (+13.3%) posted double-digit growth in Q1. Airports in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Luxembourg also grew well above the EU average. Conversely, Sweden was the only country that reported a decline in passenger traffic(-4.1%) mainly as a result of the country’s aviation tax and fast increasing environmental pressures limiting demand.
Meanwhile, passenger traffic barely grew in Denmark (+0.9%) and significantly underperformed in Belgium (+1.9%) due to ATM strikes as well as in the Netherlands (+1.8%), due to severe airport capacity limitations.
Amongst larger/capital EU airports, the best results were achieved by Berlin-TXL (+32.4%), Vienna (+24.6%), Tallinn (+13.3%), Dusseldorf (+12.5%), Milan-Malpensa (+10.6%), Palma de Mallorca (+10.2%), Athens (+9.5%) and Luxembourg (+9.3%).
Airports in the non-EU market grew at a slower pace in Q1, mainly due to traffic losses in Turkey (-3.7% – as a result of the recession affecting the country), Iceland (-8.8% – following the bankruptcy of long/medium haul budget airline WOW in the final days of March).
The best performances amongst larger/capital non-EU airports came from Moscow-Sheremetevo (+17.6%), Moscow-Vnukovo (+13.2%), Saint Petersburg (+14.7%), Minsk (+15.7%), Tbilisi (+11.2%), Kiev (+15.2%) Antalya (+13.2%) and Sochi (+12.9%).
ACI Europe is European airport trade body. Its report is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights: full service, low cost and charter.
Tags: ACI Europe, airport, Europe, passenger traffic
