Brussels top international destination
The opening of the summer season comes after a good start to the year with + 5.1% in traffic since January. The air traffic controllers’ strike on 8 and 9 April had a wide-ranging impact on global traffic with 173 flights cancelled and a loss of 17,000 passengers, bringing estimated traffic lost to 3.8%. International traffic however remains upbeat with + 9.4% growth in April and global traffic increasing slightly (+0.9%).
International flights grew +9.4% in April with 210,558 passengers. The major European destinations continued their robust growth. Brussels took the leading position thanks to the extra offering by Brussels Airlines, achieving growth of +52.2%, closely followed by Barcelona with Vueling (+40.3%), Milan with easyJet (+30.2%), Venice with Volotea (+38.9%) and Amsterdam with KLM and easyJet (+27.7%). A good start to the season for the summer ahead with Malaga (Volotea and since 13 April Vueling) +130%, Bristol (EasyJet) +45.2%, Edinburgh (Ryanair) +10.2% and Bologna (Ryanair) +4.2%.
Domestic traffic fell by -5.8% and 231,294 passengers. All domestic routes suffered from the effects of the strike: Nice -0.2%, Lille -0.7%, Orly – 10.3% and Marseille -25.5%. The Paris Charles-de-Gaulle hub benefitted from the additional 6th flight and grew therefore by +5.6%. Brest increased its traffic in a remarkable manner thanks to double servicing by Chalair and Volotea since the 17 April (+73%).
Low-cost traffic was positive with +4.5%, or 189,720 passengers in April. This trend should be confirmed in May with the opening of 4 new destinations: Prague, Dubrovnik and Corfu by Volotea and Vienna with Europe Airpost.
18/05/2015
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