04/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Strong growth in aviation traffic in January. According to the European airport trade association, ACI Europe on 4 March, 2016 got off to a flying start. Passenger traffic across the European airport network in January 2016 grew by an average +6.3% and +6.9%, in EU member states. ACI explains that this was the strongest monthly rate in almost 2 years. Freight traffic appeared to follow the same trend and grew by +3.5%, above last year's average of +2.2%. Olivier Jankovec, director general ACI EUROPE said these results can be explained by the excellent results in Southern and Eastern EU States. French airports were the only ones to experience a sharp fall, due to the attacks carried out last November. Countries outside the EU have been suffering from low aviation traffic levels in Russia and Norway. The ACI is particularly concerned about Norway's project to introduce an airport tax. (PH)