Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
EUROPE'S AIRPORTS have emerged showing the world's strongest passenger-growth over the first half of the year, giving further confirmation of the traffic boom now taking place in the region.
Passenger throughput for European airports grew by 7.8%, according to the latest figures from the Airports Council International (ACI), clearly outstripping average world growth of 6%. Europe also narrowly beat the fast growing Pacific region, which includes airports on the US West Coast. Passenger traffic elsewhere hovered around the 4-5% mark although Africa posted a 5.4% drop.
Cargo tonnage showed even stronger growth, at 9.6%, led by Latin America and Asia. Africa again was alone in posting a fall.
The ACI figures are the latest in a string of indicators showing unexpectedly strong traffic growth in Europe. The Association of European Airlines (AEA) reports that its members have achieved growth rates of close to 8% on international services over the first half.
The growth slowed a little to 5.3% in the peak month of July, but still looks likely to end the year ahead of earlier AEA forecasts of 6.9%. In its most recent forecasts the AEA predicts average passenger growth of 6.6% over the next five years.
With capacity expansion still constrained, load factors have been reaching record highs in Europe over the summer, averaging 85% across the North Atlantic in July.
There is early evidence that the trend has continued through August. British Airways reports an 8% growth in passenger traffic for the month and load factors of more than 80% - its highest figure since the boom of the late 1980s. KLM has followed suit with a 9% rise in traffic and load factors close to 82%. Both carriers are showing strongest growth on long-haul routes.
Source: Flight International
