Munich Airport closes out 3rd quarter with new traffic record: 3.4% year-on-year increase in total take-offs and landings

Munich Airport’s healthy growth trend continues: In the first nine months of the current operating year, the airport handled around 300,000 take-offs and landings – 3.4 percent more than in the same period last year. For the full calendar year, a gain of about 4 percent is expected. September saw the strongest growth of any month, with a 6.7 percent year-on-year increase to 36,690 aircraft movements. The number of passengers was up 2.9 percent in the first three quarters to a new all-time high of approximately 32.2 million.

Traffic growth at Bavaria’s international hub was especially impressive in the third quarter that just ended. In the months of July, August and September, a total of 12.3 million passengers were counted at Munich Airport –more than ever before in a single calendar quarter. With that result, the airport handled more passengers in the past three months than in its entire first year of operation in 1992. The four million passenger mark, never before reached in a single month, was ex-ceeded twice in the third quarter: after 4.1 million in July, the next record of 4.2 million was set in September. The single-day record of 156,000 passengers set on September 23, 2016 was also short-lived: it was smashed just a week later, on September 30, 2016, when 162,500 travellers passed through the airport.

Growth in passenger numbers at Munich Airport is fuelled to a large extent by above-average gains in international traffic. On European routes, 19.7 million travellers took advantage of the extensive range of destinations offered: a 3.2 percent increase over the previous year. Growth was even more dynamic in the intercontinental segment, which achieved a 5.3 percent year-on-year increase and topped the five million passenger mark in the first nine months of a calendar year for the first time. Traffic on domestic routes increased slightly by 0.3 percent to about 7.2 million.

Munich Airport also reported growth in the freight segment for the reporting pe-riod: cargo turnover totalled about 246,000 tons – an increase of more than 4 percent over Jan.–Sept. 2015 and yet another new record. This included a 2.8 percent rise in co-loaded freight carried by passenger aircraft to a total of more than 200,000 tons. The share of cargo transported on freight-only flights was up 11 percent to over 45,000 tons.

With the start of the new winter timetable period at the end of October, the traffic trend will probably gain momentum. Based on current slot bookings, the airlines plan to offer about 5 percent more flights this year than in the last winter season.