European traffic up by 7.1% in May

John Rimmer

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The latest ACI Europe figures again show rapid growth among the region's smaller airports

Airports body ACI Europe has released its traffic figures for May, revealing year-on-year growth of 7.1% in passenger numbers across the region's airports. Once again, smaller locations posted the most impressive growth, with airports welcoming less than 5m passengers annually recording an average increase of 11.9% compared with May 2004.

Among the region's bigger locations, impressive growth was posted at Madrid Barajas (10.6%), Munich (7.2%), Paris Charles de Gaulle and Rome Fiumicino (both 7.0%). Second-tier airports to welcome big increases in traffic included Barcelona (13.8% growth), Athens (13.1%) and Moscow Domodedevo (12.3%). Growth in eastern Europe was again impressive, with Budapest welcoming 30.1% more passengers than in May 2004, and traffic at Warsaw increasing by 22.5%.

Of the small airports reporting big increases, Poland's Katowice enjoyed growth of 167.3%, Rome Ciampino posted an increase of 88.7% and Riga welcomed 83.4% more traffic in May.