Brussels, 21/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - Air traffic in Europe is on a constant rise, according to data published on Wednesday 20 October by ACI-Europe (Airports Council International - Europe). The rate of growth recorded in August was nonetheless slightly below that of July, the association states. Passenger air traffic increased by 5.3% in August 2010 compared to the same month one year earlier, against 6.3% in July. Greater growth was notched up in the smallest airports (group 4) with fewer than five million passengers per year (+7.3% on average compared to August 2009). Airports with between five and ten million passengers annually (group 3) enjoyed growth of 6.9%, those with between 10 and 25 million passengers (group 2) 5.8% and those of over 25 million annually (group 1) saw the number of passengers rise by 3.4%.
Compared to August 2008 and the beginning of the economic recession, the number of passengers increased only in the smallest airports (+2.4%) with slight falls of -0.2% for airports of groups 2 and 3 and -0.3% for airports of group 1. Cumulated passenger traffic during the first third of the year 2010 (January-August) shows 3.6% growth compared to the same period in 2009. There were bigger increases for freight with growth of 23.6% compared to the first quarter 2009. (A.By./transl.jl)