Barcelona El Prat Airport leads passenger growth in the EU

20.4% more passengers used Barcelona El Prat Airport’s facilities this past February than in the same month last year. According to data released by the European airport trade association (ACI Europe), Barcelona’s airport leads the ranking of EU airports in terms of growth and tops group 1, which includes those airports with more than 25 million passengers per year. Dublin holds second position, with a registered growth of 17.2% in February, followed by Copenhagen (+16%) and Madrid Barajas (+15.5%). Regarding those European airports which are not within the EU, Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen is the only airport whose increase in the number of passengers surpassed that of Barcelona (24.3%). The increase in the number of passengers using El Prat is double the average growth registered for February in the EU overall, which was 10.3%. 

Passengers at Barcelona El Prat airport (by ACN)
Passengers at Barcelona El Prat airport (by ACN) / ACN

ACN

April 7, 2016 06:32 PM

Barcelona (CNA).- The number of passengers whom passed through Barcelona El Prat Airport’s grew by 20.4% this past February, in comparison to the same month last year, according to data released by the European airport trade association (ACI Europe). Barcelona’s airport is the one which grew the most in group 1, which includes those airports with more than 25 million passengers per year. Dublin holds second position, with a registered growth of 17.2% in February, followed by Copenhagen (+16%) and Madrid Barajas (+15.5%). Regarding those European airports which are not within the EU, Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen is the only airport whose increase in the number of passengers surpassed that of Barcelona (24.3%). The increase in the number of passengers using El Prat is double the average growth registered for February in the EU overall (10.4%). This reported average increase was particularly dynamic in the Southern and Western periphery of the bloc, which includes Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland.


ACI Europe’s traffic report for February 2016, released this Thursday, is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights to and from Europe: full service, low-cost, charter and others. Passenger traffic across the European airport network in February 2016 grew by an average of 10.4%, boosted in part by the ‘leap year’effect of having an additional day in the month compared with February 2015. This resulted in all national markets recording positive growth, including Russia –with many achieving double digit growth.

Barcelona El Prat is the airport which grew the most in the EU, with a 20.4% registered increase for February in comparison to the same month last year. In January it was the third European airport in terms of passengergrowth and second within the EU. El Prat belongs to group 1, which includes those airports with more than 25 million passengers per year. Dublin holds second position, with a registered growth of 17.2% in February, followed by Copenhagen (+16%), Madrid Barajas (+15.5%) and Amsterdam-Schiphol (+13.6%).

Regarding those airports in group 2, which include airports which receive between 10 and 25 million passengers, Cologne leads the ranking with 32.1% registered growth in February, followed by Alicante, in the Valencian Community (+21.2%), Athens (+18.1%),.Màlaga, in the Andalusia region, (+17.7%) and Edinburgh (+17.2%).

Passenger traffic at Non-EU airports grew by 9.7%, mainly driven by Iceland, Ukraine, Israel and Turkey. Freight traffic across the European airport network grew by 2.9%, while aircraft movements were up 7.2%. Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen  is the only airport whose increase in the number of passengers surpassed that of Barcelona (24.3%).