TURKEY: Fastest Growing Airport In Europe - Sabiha Gokcen International Airport

Passenger traffic in Europe grew by an average +5.2% in 2015, according to Airports Council International Europe (ACI EUROPE).

Amongst Top 30 European Airports, Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW) in Istanbul recorded the fastest growth in passenger numbers, with a 19.7% growth Y-o-Y.

At EU airports, the average increase in passenger traffic was +5.6% with airports in Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania achieving double-digit growth.

Meanwhile, non-EU airports reported diminished growth of +3.9%. This was mainly due to a significant decline in demand for air travel across Russian and Ukrainian airports, as well as almost flat growth in Norway – despite a stellar increase in passenger traffic in Iceland and sustained growth at most Turkish airports.

Freight traffic at Europe’s airports only grew by +0.7%, as international trade remained subdued. Aircraft movements saw an increase of +2.2%.

ACI EUROPE Director General Olivier Jankovec said:

“2015 has been a very good year in terms of passenger traffic, with European airports welcoming an estimated 1,95 billion passengers. 20% of them achieved a double-digit increase and many broke new traffic records – mostly fueled by the continued growth of low cost airlines and selected non-EU airlines.”

“EU airports generally performed extremely well, despite Germany and France being impacted by airline & ATC strikes and the Paris terror attacks.”

“Remarkably, Istanbul-Atatürk airport became the 3rd busiest European airport with 61,8 million passengers, after London-Heathrow (74,9 million) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle (65,7 million). It should be noted however that small regional airports* across the continent underperformed the European average, with their passenger volume only increasing by +3,8%.”

“This is indicative of traffic growth becoming more concentrated and less inclusive.”

Commenting on the air traffic recovery since the global financial crisis, Jankovec added:

“While the EU economy did not even grow by +3% between 2008 and 2015, passenger traffic at EU airports increased by +13,6% over the same period. Such a wide gap is pointing to a lasting discontinuity in the usual relationship between GDP growth and passenger traffic performance.”

“This is reflective of new market dynamics, changing consumer behaviours and the increased importance of air transport for the European economy.”

Over the full year, airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passengers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per year (Group 4) reported an average adjustment +3.7%, +6.3%, +7.1% and +5.5%.

GROUP 1 Airports: Madrid-Barajas (+12.0%), Istanbul IST (+9.1%), Amsterdam (+6.0%), London LGW and Barcelona El-Prat (+5.7%) and Rome FCO (+5.0%)

GROUP 2 Airports: Istanbul SAW (19.7%), Athens (+19.1%), Dublin (+15.3%), London STN (+12.8%) and Izmir (+12.1%)

GROUP 3 Airports: Milan BGY (+18.6%), Gothenburg GOT (+18.1%), Berlin SXF (+16.9%), Porto (+16.7%) and Glasgow (+12.9%)

GROUP 4 Airports: Ohrid (+53.3%), Ponta Delgada (+29.5%), Astrakhan (+26.1%), Santorini/Thira (+87.6%), Cluj and Timisoara (+25.8%)

Among the airports in the Top 5, several airports will now move to a higher traffic category for 2016.