2012: overall, traffic falls but growth for low-cost and charters

In 2012 there was a total of 26,100 average daily flights in Europe. This is a decline of 2.67% compared to 2011. The decrease was spread unevenly across countries and market segments, with low cost and charter and eastern European countries seeing growth in numbers of flights while western Europe and the traditional market segments decreased.

In 2012, low-cost and chartered airlines saw increases of 1.4% and 2.6% respectively compared to 2011. In contrast, traditional scheduled air traffic – which accounts for half of total flights – business aviation and all-cargo suffered a decline of some 4-5% year-on-year.

Breakdown of traffic per market segment

Market Segment

Average Daily Flights

Market Share

Growth on 2012

Traditional scheduled

14,355

55%

-4.1%

Low cost

6,537

25%

1.4%

Business aviation

1,870

7%

-4.0%

Charter

1,414

5%

2.6%

Cargo

918

4%

-4.6%

Other*

995

4%

-9.6%

TOTAL

26,089

100%

-2.67%

* Other includes also military flights

Some countries, in particular in eastern Europe, saw an increase in traffic during the year. Turkey, Norway, Poland, Ukraine and Estonia together had an extra 240 flights per day (excluding overflights). This increase was offset by reductions in the busiest countries. Spain was the main contributor to the decline with 290 fewer flights per day. Italy and Germany saw roughly half that decrease with around 140 fewer flights daily.

The results of this pattern can be seen in the figures for the busiest airports per average daily  departures. Among the busiest hubs, all but two had decreases. Madrid Barajas shrank by 13.3%. Other major airports, like Paris CDG, Frankfurt Main, Heathrow, Munich and Rome Fiumicino, were in negative figures, ranging from -1.3% to almost -5%. The only two airports delivering growth out of the 10 busiest are Istanbul-Ataturk – which is becoming an increasingly important hub in the east with steady and strong 12.2% growth – and Amsterdam Schiphol, which remains stable with gains of 0.3%.

10 busiest departure airports per average daily departures

Rank

Departure Airport

Average Daily Departures

Growth on 2012

1

PARIS CH DE GAULLE

680

-3.4%

2

FRANKFURT MAIN

659

-1.3%

3

LONDON/HEATHROW

649

-1.5%

4

SCHIPHOL AMSTERDAM

593

0.3%

5

MUENCHEN 2

540

-3.2%

6

MADRID BARAJAS

510

-13.3%

7

ISTANBUL-ATATURK

482

12.2%

8

ROME FIUMICINO

429

-4.7%

9

BARCELONA

396

-4.6%

10

ZURICH

357

-2.8%

Turkey and Norway have between them 6 out of the 10 busiest city pairs. The biggest percentage increase in flights between city pairs was between Istanbul Ataturk and Izimr Adnam Menderes. In contrast, the Barcelona-Madrid Barajas route has fallen by almost a fifth.

10 busiest airport pairs per number of daily flights

Rank

Departure Airport

Arrival Airport

Average Daily Movements*

Growth on 2012

1

BARCELONA

MADRID BARAJAS

62

-19.1%

2

ISTANBUL-ATATURK

IZMIR-ADNAN-MENDERES

59

12.5%

3

TOULOUSE BLAGNAC

PARIS ORLY

51

0.6%

4

TRONDHEIM/VAERNES

OSLO/GARDERMOEN

49

4.3%

5

MILANO LINATE

ROME FIUMICINO

48

1.9%

6

OSLO/GARDERMOEN

BERGEN/FLESLAND

48

-2.2%

7

PARIS ORLY

NICE

46

1.6%

8

ISTANBUL-ATATURK

ANTALYA

44

6.4%

9

OSLO/GARDERMOEN

STAVANGER/SOLA

44

2.0%

10

ISTANBUL-ATATURK

ANKARA-ESENBOGA

42

4.3%

* both directions

Regarding delays communicated by the airlines within the European Network in 2012; 36% of flights were delayed by more than five minutes on departure.

The average delay per delayed flight was 27 minutes. This translates to 9.5 minutes per flight:

Average delay per flight all-causes (minutes)

Reactionary

Airline

Air Traffic Flow Management

Other

4.3

2.8

1.2

1.2

The UK, particularly the London airports, and the Iberian peninsula had the airports with highest delays per flight in 2012.

10 airports with highest departure delay per flight

Rank

Departure airport

Average delay per departure (minutes)

% of delayed departures

1

LISBOA

16.4

52.4%

2

ISTANBUL-ATATURK

13.8

48.0%

3

MANCHESTER

13.7

42.2%

4

LONDON/HEATHROW

12.5

46.5%

5

LONDON/GATWICK

12.0

42.7%

6

LONDON/LUTON

11.8

39.9%

7

MALAGA

11.4

39.2%

8

PARIS CH DE GAULLE

11.4

47.6%

9

MADRID BARAJAS

11.2

44.6%

10

PALMA DE MALLORCA

10.8

39.3%

With fuel prices remaining high and the economic recovery delayed yet again, EUROCONTROL’s current forecast is for a slight decline in traffic in 2013. We expect this to be revised further downwards in the new forecast due out at the end of February.

For more forecasts, please refer to the latest information available at the date of publication: EUROCONTROL Two-Year Forecast (December 2012) - (PDF).