admin The traffic report of European airport trade association, ACI EUROPE was out for the month of December, Q5, H2 and full year 2019. This report is one of its kind as it includes all types of airline passenger flights to, from and within Europe.
Passenger traffic rate across Europe airport network in 2019 grew at half the rate at which it grew in 2018. In 2018, it grew at 6.1% while in 2019, it grew at 3.2%. This is its weakest performance in five years. This is a surprising figure as 2.43 billion passengers visited the region in the year 2019.
According to ACI EUROPE, airline consolidation and limited capacity expansion were the main reasons for the slowdown in traffic growth rate. The aircraft moment rate became negative in the quarter of the year 2019.
The director-general of ACI EUROPE, Olivier Jankovic, said, “Over the past 5 years, Europe’s airports have increased their passenger traffic by more than +32% – meaning they have actually accommodated an extra 595 million passengers since 2014. But 2019 has been a pivotal year. Volumes were still up, but the deceleration has been notable on the back of both supply and demand pressures.”
Jankovec while looking at the months ahead said that most of the airports have a plan for the lower growth rate of passenger traffic as there are uncertain trading conditions.
He commented: “Some of the supply-side pressures might start easing, especially if the 737 MAX is finally approved to fly again and if the recent decrease in oil prices is not reversed. However, there are for now few if any signals that airlines may be considering more capacity expansion – and further airline consolidation remains an ongoing reality.”
His main concern is the after-effects of coronavirus on the European airports’ traffic growth rate and public health.
Magazine 
