Brussels, 7 July 2016: European airport trade association, ACI EUROPE today releases its traffic report for May 2016. This is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights to and from Europe: full service, low cost, charter and others.

Passenger traffic across the European airport network in May reported an average increase +3.6%. This growth is entirely attributable to the EU market, with airports in the bloc reporting passenger traffic growth of +5.5% - while the non-EU market saw traffic dropping by -2.5%, the first decline in traffic growth for these airports since 2009.

Freight traffic across the European airport network grew by +2.8%. Here again, EU airports accounted for all that growth (+3.8%) while non-EU airports registered a significant decline (-4.4%).

Aircraft movements were up +3.1% across Europe – pointing to continued airline capacity expansion.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said “Declining passenger traffic in Russia and Turkey is now weighing down on the overall performance of European airports – here we clearly see the impact of increasing geopolitical and terrorist risks. Some of the leisure demand is shifting towards the EU market – contributing to boosting EU passenger traffic performance for airports in Portugal, Spain and Cyprus in particular – and baseline fundamentals generally remain positive for EU airports on the back of improving economic conditions and affordable prices for oil. Airports in Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Lithuania all registered double digit growth in May. Conversely, there is significant weakness in other parts of the EU – especially Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.”

He added “The recent Brexit vote is mainly about medium to long-term risks concerning the integrity of the European single aviation market. We do not expect it to have a significant impact on overall European air traffic levels this summer. However, the political instability and uncertainty it has created in the UK and beyond, is already hurting business confidence and might end up doing the same for consumer confidence – this could affect demand for air transport later in the year.”

BREAKDOWN BY TRAFFIC CATEGORY

During the month of May, 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 +0.7%, +5.5%, +9.7% and +3.7%.

The airports which reported the highest increases in passenger traffic during May 2016 (compared with May 2015) are as follows:

GROUP 1:     Barcelona El-Prat (+12.3%), Dublin (+11.6%), Copenhagen (+10.8%), Istanbul SAW (+10.6%), Rome FCO (+7.7%)

GROUP 2:     Gran Canaria (+18.5%), Cologne-Bonn (+13.9%), Budapest (+13.5%), Tel Aviv (+12.9%) and Malaga (+12.2%)

GROUP 3:     Berlin SXF (+43.0%), Larnaca (+27.0%), Ibiza (+20.8%), Bucharest OTP (+18.9%) and Porto (+16.6%)

GROUP 4:     Oradea (+22,417.7%), Palanga (+97.7%), Kharkiv (+56.0%), Ohrid (+44.6%) and Bourgas (+40.4%)

The 'ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Report – May 2016’ includes 215 airports in total representing more than 88% of European air passenger traffic.

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Notes to Editors

The month of May this year also saw the traffic at several airports (including Paris CDG, London Heathrow and Frankfurt) suffer setbacks, due to industrial action by air traffic controllers and airlines.

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 is the European region of Airports Council International (ACI), the only worldwide professional association of airport operators. ACI EUROPE represents over 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.

EVERY FLIGHT BEGINS AT THE AIRPORT.