Dublin is Europe’s fastest growing major airport

DUBLIN Airport was the fastest growing major airport in Europe in the first six months of this year, according to data from ACI Europe, the trade association for European airports.

Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport increased by 13.4 per cent in the first half of the year, making it the leading performer among top tier European airports, which have more than 25 million passengers per year.

The growth at Dublin follows last year’s record-breaking performance when the airport welcomed 25 million passengers for the first time.

In the first six months of this year traffic at Dublin Airport grew faster than Barcelona’s El-Prat Airport (+12.7 per cent) Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (+12 per cent), Copenhagen Airport (+10.9 per cent) and Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam (+9.9 per cent).

The average growth across European airports was 4.9 per cent in the first half of the year, with airports in the European Union reporting stronger average passenger growth of 6.2 per cent, according to ACI Europe.

Traffic at non-EU airports within Europe was almost flat in the first half, growing by just 0.5 per cent.

The ACI Europe traffic report, which covers 215 airports, is the only air transport report that includes all types of civil aviation, comprising passenger flights to and from Europe on full service, low cost, charter airlines and others.

ACI Europe Director General, Olivier Jankovec, said that while the pan-European traffic performance was healthy in the half of the year, there was a slowing of growth in non-EU airports, which was expected to continue for the rest of the year.

“EU airports are also likely to see a continued softening of passenger traffic on the back of lower consumer confidence fuelled by terrorism and the decision of the UK to leave the EU, as well as major full service airlines reining in capacity,” he said.

“The only positive remains the price of oil – which should help limit the extent of capacity cuts and keep low cost carriers in expansion mode.”