Pressure on tourist numbers to Mediterranean coastal areas and Turkey compared unfavourably with a strong May in 2015 this year at some Fraport airports.

 

Traffic fell by -5.5% to 5.3m in May 2016, with Frankfurt Airport also hit by a ‘noticeable drop in tourist traffic’ from the Far East – notably Japan – following the recent terrorist attacks in Europe. In addition, Fraport pointed to numerous public holidays in Germany which led to a thinning out of the May flight schedule at Frankfurt.

 

Weather related flight cancellations also played their part in May impacting on around 15,000 passengers. With 41,181 take-offs and landings, FRA also registered a 3.5% fall in aircraft movements.

 

Meanwhile, Fraport’s international airports reported mixed results in May, with Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia experienced a fall of 9.3% to 116,499 passengers due to consolidation of flight offerings. By contrast, Lima Airport in Peru welcomed 1.6m passengers – up 12.8%.

 

 

 

The two Bulgarian gateways at Varna and Burgas saw combined traffic jump 36.5% to 229,375 passengers, with the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast proving its potential as an alternative holiday destination for travellers from Europe and, above all Russia.

 

Fraport adds that these holidaymakers are currently avoiding countries on the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea because of security concerns.

 

 

This trend also affected traffic at Antalya Airport on the Turkish Riviera, where figures slumped by 37.2% to 1.9m passengers in May 2016. Along with travellers’ concerns about terrorism, Antalya was also hit by the ongoing political tension, which still prevails between Turkey and Russia.

 

Within Russia itself, political and economic factors also caused a decline in traffic, especially international as numbers at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg dropped by 7.3% to 1.1m. Back in northern Germany, Hanover Airport recorded a moderate 3.1% decline to 496,343 passengers, resulting solely from lower tourist traffic.

 

By contrast, Xi’an Airport in central China continued to follow a growth path, handling 3m passengers, an increase of 9.7% year-on-year.