Passenger Traffic up at European Airports as Freight Growth Fades

European airport trade body, ACI EUROPE, today released its air traffic report for June, Q2 & H1, revealing that during the first half of this year (H1), passenger traffic at Europe's airports grew by an average +6.7%, whilst freight traffic only rose by +3.3% during H1.

Passenger traffic in the less mature non-EU market increased by +10.5% - nearly twice the expansion rate of the EU market: +5.4%. Both markets saw the growth dynamic recede slightly in Q2 over Q1 - from +12.5% to +9.4% at non-EU airports and from +6.2% to +4.9% at EU airports.

In the EU, airports in the Baltic States, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia achieved double digit growth. Meanwhile, airports in Sweden posted to the lowest growth within Europe (+1.5%), due to the combination of the new national aviation tax introduced last April, the bankruptcy of regional airline Nextjet and lower outbound demand in the wake of local currency hitting its lowest value in years. Sweden became the only European market losing passenger traffic in June (-0.4%), with its new aviation tax among the factors leading to the improved performance of airports in neighbouring Denmark (+5.7%).

In the non-EU market, passenger traffic grew in excess of +15% at airports in Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia and Israel and Iceland. 

The Majors (Europe's top five busiest airports) recorded a passenger traffic increase of +6.3% in H1 - a notable improvement over their 2017 performance (+4.3%). Istanbul-Atatürk topped the league in terms of growth (+12.9%), followed by Frankfurt (+9.1%). Amsterdam-Schiphol also reported robust growth (+5.4%), followed by Paris-CDG (+3.0% - whose performance was impacted by repeated strikes at Air...