ACI Europe Reports Latest Airport Statistics

The overall passenger traffic at European airports increased by 7.0% in September 2011 compared with September 2010, according to the latest data from industry body ACI Europe. However, like IATA’s global statistics, the recently established trend in decreasing freight traffic among European airports worsened, registering a 3.8 per cent decline in September 2011 compared with the corresponding month last year. The overall figure for movements at European airports increased 3.0 per cent for the same period.

“September has seen the gap between passenger and freight traffic only get bigger (a gap of 10.8 per cent) with freight now stuck in a sustained downward trend which looks very similar to what we experienced back in 2008. For now, passenger traffic continues to defy the weakening GDP growth here in Europe coming with record unemployment levels and hardening fiscal austerity,” said Olivier Jankovec, Director General, ACI Europe. “Meanwhile, freight traffic perfectly reflects these developments, along with the softer growth we are seeing in Asia’s emerged economies – in particular China.”

Airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passengers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per year (Group 4) reported an average increase of 6.5, 7.7, 7.5 and 6.4 per cent respectively when compared with September 2010. The same comparison of September 2011 with September 2009 demonstrates an average increase of 14.1, 17.8, 17.3 and 16.7 per cent, respectively.

Third Quarter figures report a 5.8 per cent growth in passenger traffic and a 2.7 per cent growth in movements, but a decrease of 2.2 per cent in freight, compared with the same period in 2010. In terms of the year-to-date, compared to the same period in 2010, European airports have seen an overall increase of 8.0 per cent in passenger traffic, but a weaker increase in freight 1.9 per cent and movements of 4.7 per cent.

Looking in greater detail at passenger traffic in each airport size group, the table below highlights the best performers in September 2011 (in comparison with September 2010).