ACI Europe reports that European passenger air traffic rose by +4.5% in the first six months of 2015, while aircraft movements grew by +2% – thanks to additional capacity – and freight traffic increased marginally by 0.5%.
 
Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe said: “The first half of this year has seen solid passenger traffic growth for the European airport industry. However, where as recently as 18 months ago non-EU airports were propping up weaker passenger traffic growth at EU airports, we are now through the looking glass.

“The situation has flipped and EU airports now lead the growth – reporting +5.1% during the first half of the year, compared with +2.3% at Non-EU airports. This reversed trend in passenger traffic growth is likely to stay for the rest of the year, mainly due to continued weakness in the Russian economy, as well as the impact of lower oil prices on the Norwegian economy.”

 
He continued: “Meanwhile, EU economies keep improving, in particular with the former bailed out economies of Ireland, Spain and Portugal surging ahead. Geopolitical instability and renewed terrorist threats in North Africa are also redirecting some leisure traffic to EU destinations. As for freight, the situation in Russia – as well as slower growth in emerging markets – is likely to keep constraining traffic performance.”

 

During the first half of this year, airports with +25m passengers (Group 1), those with between 10-25m (Group 2), airports with 5-10m (Group 3) and those handling less than 5m (Group 4) reported average growth percentages of +3.0%, +5.5%, +6.3% and +5.5%.

During the first half, airports with the highest passenger percentage increases in their respective groups were as follows: Group 1: Madrid (+11.4%); Istanbul IST (+6.4%); London LGW (+5.4%); Amsterdam (+5.0%); and Barcelona (+4.8%). Group 2: Athens (+23.3%); London STN (+16.9%); Istanbul SAW (+16.6%); Dublin (+15.1%); and Lisbon (+13.0%)’

These were followed by Group 3: Milan BGY (+32.1%); Porto (+16.8%); Glasgow (+13.8%); Bucharest OTP (+12.6%); and Budapest (+11.8%) and Group 4: Santorini (+33.2%); Sibiu (+32.3%); Cluj (+30.5%); Astrakhan (+29.5%); and Ponta Delgada (+29.1%).

 

Moving on to the month of June, passenger traffic grew by 3.2%, freight by 3.0% and aircraft movements rose by +2.4%.

During the month of June, airport group passenger percentage increases were as follows: Group 1 +2.1%; Group 2 +4.0%; Group 3 +4.2%; and Group 4 +3.3%.

In June, those airports reporting the highest increases in passenger traffic were as follows: Group 1: Madrid (+11.3%); Istanbul IST (+6.5%); Amsterdam (+5.8%); London LGW (+5.2%); Frankfurt & Münich (+2.8%). Group 2:  Athens (+21.9%); Dublin (+18.0%); Lisbon (+12.7%); Istanbul SAW (+12.3%); and London STN (+11.0%).

 

In addition, Group 3 airports in June were led by: Porto OPO (+18.5%); Milan BGY (+14.5%); Glasgow (+14.1%); Berlin SXF (+11.9%); and Budapest (+11.8%) and Group 4 were as follows: Chambery (+316.7%); Chisinau (+38.8%); Ohrid (+31.6%); Ponta Delgada (+31.1%); and Astrakhan (+30.0%).

ACI Europe says its Airport Traffic Report – June, Q2 & H1’ includes 211 airports in total, representing more than 88% of European air passenger traffic. It also claims that this is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights: network, low cost, charter and others.