No Good News for European Airport Industry in July Traffic Report

The latest traffic figures for Europe’s airports released today reveal a disappointing summer season in traffic terms. Overall passenger traffic at European airports in the month of July reported growth of just +1.1 percent. The overall freight traffic among European airports declined by -3.2 percent in the same period, while aircraft movements (an indicator of airline capacity) at European airports decreased by -0.8 percent.

The divide within Europe remains, with passenger traffic growth at EU airports registering a totally flat result (0.0 percent) while non-EU airport passenger traffic continued to enjoy diminishing growth of +6.1 percent. 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 for June 2012 an average increase of +0.8 percent, +1.1 percent, +2.2 percent and +0.6 percent respectively when compared with June 2011.

In terms of the year-to-date passenger traffic results at European airports, comparison with the same period in 2011 reveals an average increase of +2.5 percent, +2.5 percent, +2.3 percent and +1.6 percent respectively, across the 4 traffic groups.