ACI Europe reports that European airport passenger traffic in May saw an average rise of +3.6%, although it emphasises that this increase was ‘entirely attributable to the EU market’, where traffic rose by +5.5% compared to a drop of -2.5% in the non-EU sector.

 

It also notes that this was the first traffic decline in the latter category of airports since 2009. These statistics also show that within the top 50 airports from the total under review, a total of 13 recorded double-digit traffic growth in the month of May, while 10 noted overall declines, according to the ACI figures.

 

By contrast, freight traffic rose by +2.8% with EU airports +3.8% and non-EU -4.4%, while aircraft movements rose by a total of +3.1% across Europe, with ACI pointing to continued airline capacity expansion as the reason.

 

RUSSIA AND TURKEY DOWN

Negative traffic trends in both Russia and Turkey have also taken their toll, according to ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec: “Declining passenger traffic in Russia and Turkey is now weighing down on the overall performance of European airports – here we clearly see the impact of increasing geopolitical and terrorist risks.

 

“Some of the leisure demand is shifting towards the EU market – contributing to boosting EU passenger traffic performance for airports in Portugal, Spain and Cyprus in particular – and baseline fundamentals generally remain positive for EU airports on the back of improving economic conditions and affordable prices for oil.

 

“Airports in Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Lithuania all registered double-digit growth in May. Conversely, there is significant weakness in other parts of the EU – especially Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.”

 

LEADING AIRPORTS IN MAY

 

Adding his comments in relation to the recent Brexit vote in the UK, he said: “The recent Brexit vote is mainly about medium to long-term risks concerning the integrity of the European single aviation market. We do not expect it to have a significant impact on overall European air traffic levels this summer.

 

“However, the political instability and uncertainty it has created in the UK and beyond, is already hurting business confidence and might end up doing the same for consumer confidence – this could affect demand for air transport later in the year.”

 

In terms of the actual numbers, those airports with +25m passengers per year (Group 1), airports with +10m to 25m (Group 2), those with 5m to 10m (Group 3) and airports with less than 5m (Group 4) reported respective increases of +0.7%, +5.5%, +9.7% and +3.7%.

 

Airports with the highest rises in passenger numbers in May were as below:

 

Group 1: Barcelona El-Prat (+12.3%); Dublin (+11.6%); Copenhagen (+10.8%); Istanbul SAW (+10.6%); Rome FCO (+7.7%).

 

Group 2: Gran Canaria (+18.5%); Cologne-Bonn (+13.9%); Budapest (+13.5%); Tel Aviv (+12.9%); and Malaga (+12.2%).

 

Group 3: Berlin SXF (+43.0%); Larnaca (+27.0%); Ibiza (+20.8%); Bucharest OTP (+18.9%); and Porto (+16.6%).

 

Group 4: Oradea (+22,417.7%); Palanga (+97.7%); Kharkiv (+56.0%); Ohrid (+44.6%); and Bourgas (+40.4%).

 

The ‘ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Report – May 2016’ includes 215 airports in total representing more than 88% of European air passenger traffic.