Airport News
European airport trade body ACI Europe says it has struck a ‘cautiously positive note’ when announcing air traffic figures for 2013.
The overall passenger traffic growth across Europe’s airports last year, increased by 2.8% compared with figures in 2012.
Non-EU countries such as Turkey, Russia, Iceland and Norway reported passenger traffic growth of 9.6%, while EU airports experienced an increase of 1%.
ACI Europe says the structure of the European aviation market continues to evolve, with non-EU airports now accounting for close to 22% of total traveller traffic, up 15% from 2008.
And it says the recovery of domestic passenger numbers has been lagging behind international passenger traffic – especially in countries most affected by the Eurozone crisis and where high speed rail provides an alternative to flying.
ACI Europe is predicting a 3.2% growth in traffic at European airports in 2014, a rise of 1.5% in freight, and an increase of 1.4% in aircraft movements.
Olivier Jankovec, director general, ACI Europe, says: “2013 has seen a steady improvement in European passenger traffic month after month, from a decrease of 1.6% in January to impressive growth of 5.5% in December.
“The recovery became more dynamic over the summer and clearly gathered steam in the final months of the year.
“EU airports have consistently underperformed their non-EU counterparts throughout the year.
“This is due to the continued impact of the Eurozone crisis and the maturity of the EU air transport market, where air travel is now a commodity.
“However, this performance gap has narrowed over the last months, and it is encouraging to see the bounce back in passenger traffic at many airports across the EU, especially in Ireland and Portugal – or even Spain and Greece.”
Freight traffic at European airports for 2013 increased by 0.8%, while the overall number of aircraft movements decreased by 1.2%.
The biggest rises in traffic at group one airports, were Istanbul Atatürk Airport with 13.6%, Moscow-Sheremetyevo with 11.7%, and Moscow-Domodedovo with 9.2%.
Other airports seeing a big increase in traffic in 2013, were Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen with 27%, St Petersburg-Pulkovo with 15.2% and Ankara with 18.2%.
