The report, which collates information from 500 airports from 45 different European countries associated with ACI Europe, representing more than 90 percent of Europe’s commercial air traffic, is described as a “point of reference” for international airport statistics.
In effect, according to a statement from Portugal’s national airport management company ANA, it is the only report on air transport that covers all types of civil passenger flights – low cost, charter and network – to and from Europe.
ACI’s report stresses that passenger traffic throughout European airports last year grew by 5.2 percent; within EU airports, that growth was 5.6 percent with airports in Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania achieving double-digit growth.
Oporto was ranked among a ‘group three’ level of growth, alongside Milan, Gothenburg, Berlin and Glasgow, where in the northern airport’s case footfall for the year of 2015 rose by 16.7 percent, to between five and ten million passengers a year.
Ponto Delgada (Azores) was ranked among Group 4, where passenger traffic was below the five million passenger mark but still registered rises, in the Ponta Delgada’s case, of 29.5 percent.
Solely regarding the month of December 2015, Faro airport registered a growth in figures of 17.3 percent, compared to December 2014, and was placed among the top-5 European airports where monthly passenger figures most grew.
ANA says this is due to investment it has made in attracting traffic to the Algarve during the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) winter season.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE said: ““2015 has been a very good year in terms of passenger traffic, with European airports welcoming an estimated 1.95 billion passengers. Twenty percent of them achieved a double-digit increase and many broke new traffic records – mostly fuelled by the continued growth of low-cost airlines and selected non-EU airlines.”
Assessing the current outlook for passenger traffic in Europe, Jankovec said: “The positive momentum created by improving economic conditions in the Eurozone, low oil prices and loose monetary policy is likely to persist for most of 2016. This should help keep passenger traffic growing - except for Russian airports.
“However, downside risks abound, and they are mainly of a geopolitical nature – both home-grown and external. These range from the unprecedented migration crisis and its repercussions on Schengen to the UK Brexit, heightened terrorist threats, instability in the Middle East and North Africa and deteriorating prospects in emerging markets.”