Airport trade body ACI Europe has released its traffic report for the third quarter (Q3) of 2015, which demonstrates an average year-on-year increase in the number of European travelers by 6.2%. Similarly, passenger traffic at non-EU airports reported growth of 6.4% for the same period.
Olivier Jankovec, director general, ACI Europe, said, “With the exception of Russia and Norway, passenger traffic growth has been extremely dynamic over the peak summer months across Europe for all segments of the airport industry. Within the EU, airports in Hungary, Ireland, Romania, Slovenia and Luxembourg have posted double-digit growth – while the Lufthansa strikes in September have weighed on the performance of German airports. Conversely, several French airports benefitted from strong comparison with September last year – when a two-week strike by Air France pilots severely depressed traffic.
“Outside the EU, airports in Moldova, Israel, Iceland, Georgia and Macedonia all grew in excess of 20% and Ukrainian airports have achieved a significant return to growth. Turkish airports have continued to perform very well – although a couple of airports serving prime tourism destinations have been affected by decreasing traffic from Russia.”
In Q3, the top five traffic increases for airports in Europe welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year included Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) with 21.1%, Paris Orly (France) with 13%, Madrid Barajas International (Spain) with 11.7%, Istanbul Atatürk (Turkey) with 8.5% and Copenhagen (Denmark) with 6.1%.
For airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers annually, the top traffic increases were found at Ben Gurion (Tel Aviv, Israel) with 31.2%, Sabiha Gökçen International (Istanbul, Turkey) with 22.6%, Esenboğa International (Ankara, Turkey) with 16.5%, Athens International (Greece) with 14.7% and Dublin (Ireland) with 14.3%.