Last year saw ‘a progressive recovery of air traffic’, with Europe’s airports handling 50m additional passengers and posting a record volume with 1.66bn passengers.

 

 

This was the news imparted at today’s 24th ACI EUROPE Annual Congress, Assembly & Exhibition hosted by Fraport in Frankfurt. The theme of this year’s two-day event is ‘Compelling Connectivity for our Cities, Regions and Europe’, with  ACI EUROPE addressing the immediate outlook for its 461 airport members in 44 countries. [This year’s event has attracted over 320 delegates and 20 exhibitors from airports, airlines, ANSPs and other aviation partners and the European Commission].

 

Addressing the traffic outlook, ACI said that the recovery has gathered further pace since the start of 2014, with passenger and freight traffic up +5.5% and +4.9% respectively. It says this reflects ‘much improved trading conditions’ on the back of economic growth generally gaining momentum across Europe.

 

Significantly, the performance gap between EU airports and non-EU airports is now at its lowest since the 2008/2009 financial crisis – with most airports in Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus enjoying a rebound.

 

Commenting, Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said: “Beyond these positive headline results, there is still a lot of contrast in individual airport performance. As with any competitive industry, this is not a win-win for all. Several large airports have enjoyed a traffic boost this spring as low cost airlines are now clearly moving up market. However, these gains have often come at the expense of other secondary or regional airports.”

 

ACI added that although conditions for a sustained economic recovery in the medium term are improving, GDP growth in the EU is set to remain moderate this year. Economic growth in Russia is likely to be almost flat and Turkey is also showing vulnerabilities. Meanwhile global growth is moderating – with economic analysts now fearing the increasing risk of a ‘hard landing’ for China.

 

The airports group says that these fundamentals and the fact that demand for air transport had already started to increase as of last summer mean that traffic growth is likely to be less dynamic in the coming months. ACI EUROPE is now forecasting total passenger growth at +3.5% and freight growth at +3% for the full calendar year 2014

 

 

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE.

ECONOMIC & FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Meanwhile, the net profit of European airports stood at €2.5bn ($3.3bn) in 2012, representing an improvement of +13.6% on a per passenger basis over the previous year. However, ACI claims that this result owes little to improved operating margins, but is ‘entirely attributable’ to a decrease in capital costs, which are finally easing – but still remaining well above their pre-crisis level and accounting for 30% of total airport costs.

 

As ACI has noted before, 44% of Europe’s airports are loss-making and the industry’s average return on invested capital (ROIC) stands at 5% – well below the industry’s cost of capital and also below the average ROIC for the Global airport industry (5.9%). The association says that airports in the Eurozone even underperform the European average at just 3.9%.

 

Jankovec commented: “Forget all the fuss about airports making money. Our industry is not actually rewarding its owners and investors adequately. This is a reflection of ever increasing competitive pressures, as well as of a weaker correlation between traffic growth and revenue levels.”

 

ACI further claims that competitive pressures on airports are now driven by the ‘hybridisation’ of the airline industry, which has taken a new turn. ACI says: “While hybridisation is about the low cost carriers upgrading their own products and luring more affluent passengers, it is equally about full service carriers restructuring and simplifying their offerings, and, like the LCCs, increasingly competing on yields rather than capacity.

 

“These developments are pointing towards significant market changes for airports – with airlines of all business models becoming more flexible and responsive to change, and therefore enjoying stronger negotiating positions.”

 

Jankovec added “For now, the pie is getting both smaller and thicker for airports. Opportunities for new route openings are getting harder to come by. We have gone from 1,141 net route openings across Europe back in 2010 to just 251 last year.”

 

ACI claims that by further changing the balance of the airport-airline relationship to the benefit of airlines, these structural market changes are ultimately translating into a weaker revenue environment.

 

 

Frankfurt Airport Pier A-plus Atrium: alternative revenue sources such as retail have long subsidised airport operations at many airports throughout the world.

 

 

EUROPEAN AIRPORT CHARGES FALL

This year, charges levied by Europe’s airports on airlines and passengers for the use of their facilities have decreased by -1.13% in real terms. But ACI says that this figure only relates to the nominal level of airport charges and does not include ‘the widespread financial incentives’ that airports are offering to airlines to support new route openings – or even existing routes in some cases.

 

The pressures on aeronautical revenues are prompting airports to keep developing alternative revenue sources, in particular through retail, food & beverage, but also real estate, advertising and car parking. In doing so, airports are targeting not only passengers, but also other visitors to the airport site.

 

However, these activities also have to deal with their own challenges – from weaker consumer spending and market maturity to fierce off-site competition for both retail and parking, as well as airline cabin bag restrictions or regulatory restrictions on the sale of certain products.

 

Jankovec concluded: “There is no escaping the fact that airlines and passengers are benefiting from effective subsidies and paying far less than the cost of the airport facilities and services they are using. Charges paid by airlines only represent 14% of total airport revenues, down from 21% back in 2008.

 

“Even when factoring in charges paid by passengers for the use of terminals, the airport industry is left with a staggering €4bn ($5.4bn) in unrecovered operating costs. This is why generating alternative commercial revenues has become so important. But we need to address many challenges to keep increasing these revenues – pushing innovation further and looking at cooperating with airlines to make the most of opportunities.”