Is Eindhoven airport "the next big thing"?
Recent development and growth of the airport, showed some remarkable data of the airport, city, province and the total of the Netherlands.
Analyzing data from ACI Europe (Airport Council International) and comparing Eindhoven airport's growth to Europe’s growth, outcome is that the airport is growing much faster than Europe, in average by 12.7%.
Since the Netherlands is a well-developed country, further comparison for Eindhoven airport was with its main competitors Amsterdam Schiphol and Düsseldorf.
From the same ACI source, again highlighted higher growth of Eindhoven than Amsterdam by 11.9% and Düsseldorf by 7%.
Amsterdam and Düsseldorf are main players in western Europe, for some this comparison is not too realistic, and their thoughts are more directed to comparison with similar airports with a higher share of LCC in their airline portfolio.
As a result, comparison between Eindhoven, Charleroi and Cologne airport has been performed and growth difference is even higher.
Eindhoven is growing faster than Charleroi 19,2 % and Cologne 16 % in the same period from January to May 2017.
Than where is the catch? Are airlines from Eindhoven airport offering cheaper fares and thus attracting more passengers?
Average outbound fare for a benchmarked airline at Eindhoven for April was 86.6 €, Weeze 79.89 €, Maastricht 69.45 € and Charleroi 51.69 €.
It is obvious that offering lower fares are not the cause for Eindhoven's boost.
Operational report from June just resulted with additional questions, because in June there was 130% of passenger growth (a good part of the growth is a result of last year’s airport closure during June).
Now, there is a remarkable behavior of the airlines, that are using bigger airplanes and thus offering more seats and opportunities although Eindhoven airport is a Level 3 coordinated airport and without any single slot available for S17 and W17.
Definitely it will be interesting to see development of the route network for S18, when there will be a few thousand new slots available.
Eindhoven airport’s secret lies in the excellent market background, strong business sector which generates 10% higher province GDP than the average Dutch GDP, catchment area and diversity of its passengers.
There is a bright future for Eindhoven airport and its passengers, no question about it.