Brussels, 8 January 2016: European airport trade body, ACI EUROPE today released its traffic report forNovember 2015. The report is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights: network, low cost, charter and others.

During November, passenger traffic across the European airport network grew by an average +4.6%. At EU airports, the average passenger traffic growth was +5.1%, while passenger traffic at Non-EU airports reported diminished growth of +2.9%.

Meanwhile, freight traffic at Europe’s airports was down -0.6%. Finally, aircraft movements increased by +1.7%.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE commented “Overall, passenger traffic remained healthy in November - although growing at a slower pace when compared to previous months. This slower growth is essentially due to heavy traffic losses at Russian airports, as well as to the fierce impact of the Lufthansa strikes on German airports and the toll taken by the Paris terrorist attacks on French airports. The combination of these events resulted in Istanbul-Atatürk airport ranking the second busiest European airport behind London-Heathrow for the first time on a monthly basis – as passenger traffic decreased by -11.3% at Frankfurt airport and by -1.3% at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

He added “Many EU markets achieved double digit growth in passenger traffic – Slovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania, Portugal, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, Malta, Cyprus and Hungary. Meanwhile, Iceland continued to register stellar growth, with Keflavik airport increasing passenger numbers by +26.4%. However, overall growth in freight traffic remained almost flat due to significant traffic losses at Russian airports which dragged down non-EU airport freight traffic to -12.8% - whereas EU airports posted a +1.3% increase.”

During the month, 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 adjustment +1.9%, +6.5%, +8.6% and +5.1%.

The airports which reported the highest increases in passenger traffic during November (compared with November 2014) are as follows:

GROUP 1:     Madrid (+12.9%), Barcelona (+12.7%), Copenhagen (+12.1%), Amsterdam (+8.8%) and London LGW (+7.3%)

GROUP 2:     Istanbul SAW (21.4%), Dublin (+16.4%), Athens (+16.0%), Prague (+12.9%) and Edinburgh (+12.4%)

GROUP 3:     Berlin SXF (+46.1%), Cologne-Bonn (+18.3%), Porto (+16.0%), Lyon (+15.8%) and Gothenburg GOT (+15.0%), 

GROUP 4:     Ohrid (+229.3%), Santorini/Thira (+87.6%), Ponta Delgada (+58.6%), Bournemouth (+52.2%) and Hammerfest (+35.5%)

The 'ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Report – November 2015’ includes 211 airports in total representing more than 88% of European air passenger traffic.

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The ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Report is a dedicated service for journalists available in the password protected ‘Airport Traffic Report’ section of the ‘Media room’ on our website www.aci-europe.org. Accredited members of the media may also access additional traffic analysis and comprehensive traffic databases. For your password to access these sections, please contact us by e-mail at:maria.karananou@aci-europe.org. Your request will be validated and the password will be e-mailed to your work address.

For more information, please contact:

Robert O’Meara, Director, Media & Communications, ACI EUROPE

mobile: +32 (0)486 54 14 71 or tel: +32 (0)2 552 09 82.

Email: robert.omeara@aci-europe.org

ACI EUROPE (Airports Council International)

10, Rue Montoyer (box No 9), 1000 Brussels, Belgium

Tel: +32 2 552 09 82    Website: www.aci-europe.org          

Fax: +32 2 502 56 37   Twitter: @ACI_EUROPE

For information on airports & their carbon emissions: http://airportCO2.org

ACI EUROPE is the European region of Airports Council International (ACI), the only worldwide professional association of airport operators. ACI EUROPE represents close to 500 airports in 45 European countries. In 2014, our member airports handled over 90% of commercial air traffic in Europe, welcoming more than 1.8 billion passengers, 18.4 million tonnes of freight and 21.2 million aircraft movements. These airports contribute to the employment of 12.3 million people, generating €675 billion each year (4.1%) of GDP in Europe.