Dublin Airport Tops European Airports Growth League

Dublin Airport has regained its position as one of the highest growers among Europe’s major airports, according to the latest monthly data from ACI Europe.

May figures show that Dublin Airport, at 10.2%, was the fourth-highest growth airport in the top tier of European airports – behind only Antalya, Lisbon and Moscow Sheremetyevo.

Average passenger growth across Europe during May came in at 6.1%, a “slight deceleration” compared to Q1 growth of 7.6%.

According to the ACI, non-EU market continued to lead the growth dynamic, with passenger traffic up 8%, compared to 12.5% in Q1. Gains were especially strong at airports in Georgia (+27%), Iceland (+26.5%), Montenegro (+22.2%), Ukraine (+20.7%), Macedonia (+16.1%) Albania (+14.1%) and Israel (+12.5%), with more moderate growth in Russia (+8.6%) and Turkey (+7.5%).

The EU market saw passenger traffic increase by +5.5%, compared to 6.2% in Q1. Growth was limited by ATC and airline strikes, the lasting impact of the bankruptcies of Air Berlin and Monarch as well as weather disruptions. “As in previous months, airports in the eastern and southern parts of the bloc, along with Finland and Luxembourg, significantly outperformed this average.”

ACI said passenger traffic at the top five European airports) grew by 3%, on the back of “a rather contrasted performance”.

“While Frankfurt came on top, with an impressive +9.5% increase, Istanbul-Atatürk registered the lowest performance at -0.3%. Meanwhile, passenger traffic grew by +3.1% at London-Heathrow, +3% at Amsterdam-Schiphol and +2.1% at Paris-CDG.”