For the first time in its history, Munich Airport topped the 8m passenger mark in the first three months of the current calendar year with total passenger numbers up 12% and March alone accounting for 3m passengers.

Airport management said that the strong surge in air traffic also carried over to the global movement of cargo, with Munich handling almost 70,000 tons of airfreight and airmail in the first three months of the year.

VERY STRONG GROWTH
Increases in the passenger traffic at Munich Airport in both the long-haul and European traffic segments were higher than the overall average gains, with the number of long-haul passengers up by 13.2%, and flights to and from European cities carrying 13.7% more passengers. The domestic traffic segment within Germany recorded growth of nearly 7% in the first quarter.

In the booming intercontinental segment, North and South American routes were particularly popular with more than 100 departures per week in the first quarter. Nearly 540,000 passengers crossed the Atlantic to travel to and from Munich. This represents a 19% increase over the previous year. Services offered to Asian destinations continued their strong performance, with an overall 10% traffic increase.