International flights posted +19.7% growth in March with 176,800 passengers. International hubs continued to show gains: Madrid, which is served by Iberia and its low-cost subsidiary Iberia Express, had the highest growth rate with +57.9%. The next-highest gains were reported by Lisbon (+55.6%), Amsterdam (+8.3%) and Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (+4%). Other routes also showed excellent results. Boosted by the arrival of easyJet last spring, Barcelona and Venice posted the highest growth for the month with respective increases of +130% and 150%, compared to March 2016. Service to the two cities is also provided by Vueling (Barcelona) and Volotea (Venice). European routes showed strong overall gains. The greatest increases were shown by Brussels +77%, London Stansted +60%, and Edinburgh +33%. Berlin attained 4,200 passengers for the month and, for its first year of operation in the winter season, Bristol reached 2,300 passengers.
Domestic traffic (+8.9%) was greatly affected by strikes in March but domestic routes nevertheless saw strong growth: Marseille +29.5%, Strasbourg +19.3%, Lyon +13.8%, Nice +10.6%. Paris Orly, Bordeaux Airport’s number-one route, enjoyed a 6.3% increase, with exceptional seat-occupancy rates.
Low-cost airline traffic continued to grow in the first quarter of 2017, with a +26.7% increase (and +27.3% for March 2017 alone), and a total of 470,000 passengers. Note that 121,000 passengers were carried by easyJet, confirming its strong growth (+27.4%). Volotea, with 11,200 passengers during the month, reported +41.8% growth
11/04/2017