ACI Europe: European pax up 7% in Oct-2018 on strong non EU, core market traffic growth

ACI Europe reported (10-Dec-2018) European passenger traffic increased 6.5% year-on-year in Oct-2018. EU airport traffic increased 6.3%, with Austria and Luxembourg recording double digit growth driven by LCC expansion at Vienna International Airport (+18.2%) and Luxembourg Findel Airport (+12.1%). Larger and core markets of Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Finland and Spain outperformed European averages, which in part reflected impacts in ATM disruptions. Berlin Tegel Airport traffic increased 31.9%. Sweden was the only European country to register a traffic decrease (-1.1%) due to a new aviation tax and SEK depreciation. Non EU airport traffic increased 7.2%, although weakness in domestic traffic at Turkish airports limited growth. Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus and Iceland had the largest increases, with strong growth at Kiev (+24.6%), Tbilisi (+17.9%), Minsk (+16.5%) and Keflavik (+16.3). [more - original PR]