European traffic up 4.1% in April

Emily Pacey

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Early Easter blamed for slower traffic growth in April

Passenger traffic at European airports increased by 4.1% year-on-year in April 2005, according to ACI Europe. This figure indicates slower growth than that experienced in April 2004, when 13% more passengers passed through European airports than in April 2003. This year's early Easter is being blamed for the slower growth.

Smaller airports welcoming less than 5m passengers per year showed most growth once again, with small Eastern European airports continuing to shine. Poland's Katowice airport enjoyed a traffic increase of 257% in April, welcoming 82,400 passengers. Riga's traffic rose by 85.3% and Bournemouth's traffic grew by 71.8%. The category averaged growth of 8.9%.
       
Of the large airports—those welcoming more than 25m passengers a year—Munich saw the greatest traffic rise this April, welcoming 2.4m passengers, 10.6% more than last year. Madrid Barajas made its tenth appearance in a year in the top three of the large airports category, with a rise of 6.8%.  Paris Charles de Gaulle saw growth of 2.5%.
       
On average, traffic at large airports increased by 2.6%. Airports welcoming between 10-25m travellers reported a 3.5% increase and those welcoming between 5-10m recorded 5.1% growth.