Domestic air traffic down in May in five of eight major European markets

Analysis of passenger traffic data across eight of the largest European countries shows that domestic air travel was down in May in Finland, France, Norway, Spain and the UK. In Germany and Italy it was up less than 2% with only Sweden reporting significant growth of 8%.

Source: UK CAA, BAA, destatis, DGAC, ADP, Assaeroporti, LFV, Avinor, Finavia, AENA

The launch of high-speed rail services between Barcelona and Madrid appears to be taking its toll on Spanish domestic traffic. According to AENA statistics air traffic between these two major cities fell by 27% in May.

Accounting for the extra day in February reveals that domestic air traffic in France and the UK has been down every month so far this year. The re-timing of Easter into March resulted in increased demand in business dominated domestic markets such as Germany, Norway and Sweden.

International traffic compensating in most countries

International traffic has been performing better than domestic traffic in most European countries resulting in total airport traffic numbers looking rather healthier.

Source: UK CAA, BAA, destatis, DGAC, ADP, Assaeroporti, LFV, Avinor, Finavia, AENA, ANA

In May total airport traffic was up in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden with only Norway (down 1.1%), Portugal (down 1.7%) and UK (down 0.5%). The provisional UK figure for May is only for BAA’s seven airports so final figures for the whole country may still be positive.