European traffic up 1.6% in February

Emily Pacey

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

Modest growth in February blamed on 2004 leap year

The latest traffic figures from ACI Europe reveal modest growth in February 2005 compared to the same month last year. February 2004 was a leap year, and the extra day is being blamed for the relatively low 1.6% year-on-year rise experienced this February.

The smallest airports once again showed the greatest gains, attracting 6.7% more passengers when compared with February 2004. Riga led the field with gains of 85.8% on last February, but there were many more airports suffering year-on-year losses in February compared to January. Liege showed the biggest decrease, with 30.9% fewer passengers than last year.

Riga welcomed 96,800 people in February, and Liege 23,487.

Of the larger airports, Athens, Barcelona and London Gatwick performed best, with rises of 6.6%, 4.9% and 4.6% respectively.

As a comparison, in January European traffic increased by 8.1% year-on-year.

To read the full ACI Europe Traffic Report, click here