Brussels, 06/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Passenger traffic in European airports (EU and non-EU) was up 4.8% between January 2014 and January 2015, according to a report published on Thursday 5 March by the Airports Council International Europe, or ACI Europe.
This growth concerns the vast majority of European states, but there are still strong disparities. Greece, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Iceland put in the best performances (+31.2%, +26.8% +26.2% respectively), whilst Denmark, France and Germany recorded much more mediocre growth (+0.9%, +2.1% and +2.6% respectively). Only seven states saw negative developments: Ukraine (-19%), Albania (-5.5%), Norway (-4.7%), Austria (-3.7%), Slovenia (-2.9%), Russia (-1%) and Finland (-0.2%). ACI Europe also notes that overall, growth was stronger in the countries of the EU (+5.1%) than in the European countries which are not EU members (+3.8%). This is the first time since 2009 that growth has been so low for the European airports of non-EU member states.
As regards freight traffic, on the other hand, this fell by 0.5%. However, whilst this drop was very slight for the member states of the EU (-0.1%), it was much greater in the non-member states (-5.3%).
“In line with past years, passenger traffic at EU airports continues to grow dynamically”, said Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe. However, he pointed to a number of worrying factors, such as the “economic recession in Russia and the military conflict in Ukraine”, as well as the “failure to reach agreement over the Greek debt (and) the spiral of deflation”. These factors are, however, balanced out by some good news, such as the drop in oil prices and increased consumer confidence. (Jean Comte)