Brussels, 7 June 2016: European airport trade association, ACI EUROPE today releases its traffic report for April 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.

Following several months of very dynamic and significant growth, airport passenger traffic across the European airport network in April 2016 reported a somewhat diminished average of +3.0%.

In the EU, the average increase in passenger traffic was +3.7%. Meanwhile, non-EU airports reported growth of just +0.8%.

Freight traffic across Europe grew by +5.5%, the best monthly performance in almost 2 years – with most of that growth happening at EU airports (+5.8%) rather than EU ones (+1.2%). Aircraft movements were up +2.0%.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said “The lower growth reported in April for passenger traffic is due to a combination of factors. These include the Easter traffic boost shifting to March this year, the lingering impact of the Brussels terror attacks and reduced capacity at Brussels airport – which led to an almost –26% passenger decrease in the Belgium market – and ATC strikes in France¹.”

He added “Wider security concerns seem to have also contributed to slower growth – although that impact is not widespread and rather uneven in the EU. It has however been visibly weighing on the non-EU market with Turkish airports suffering a sharp decrease in international traffic, while Russia too is seeing lower volumes.”

BREAKDOWN BY TRAFFIC CATEGORY

During the month of April, 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 +2.2%, +1.5%, +7.9% and +5.3%.

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

GROUP 1:     Dublin (+10.7%), Istanbul SAW & Amsterdam (+10.1%), Moscow SVO (+9.5%), Barcelona (+8.7%), Paris ORY (+8.4%)

GROUP 2:     Cologne-Bonn (+17.8%), Birmingham (+13.3%),  Malaga (+11.8%), Manchester (+11.3%) and Gran Canaria (+10.8%)

GROUP 3:     Berlin SXF (+34.2%), Fuerteventura (+18.6%), Faro (+16.6%), Tenerife TFS (+16.0%) and Ibiza (+14.5%)

GROUP 4:     Oradea (+8,156.8%), Liege (+876.5%), Ohrid (+495.1%), Ostend (+431.6%) and Palanga (+87.3%)

The 'ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Report – April 2016’ includes 206 airports in total representing more than 88% of European air passenger traffic.

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¹ Industrial action by air traffic controllers in France on 27-29 April led to the cancellation of 350 flights, severely denting traffic performance at French airports and others affected.

Notes to Editors

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, contact:

Robert O’MEARA

Director, Media & Communications

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.

EVERY FLIGHT BEGINS AT THE AIRPORT.