Europe’s airports welcomed a record-breaking 2 billon passengers last year with Dublin ranked the fastest-growing major one following an impressive 11.5 per cent rise in passenger numbers in 2016.
New figures released by ACI Europe, the trade association for European airports, ranked Dublin airport first in the major airport category, followed by Barcelona’s El Prat and Amsterdam’s Schiphol with growth of 11.2 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively.
Copenhagen and Madrid’s Barajas airports round out the top five fastest-growing major airports last year after recording 9.1 per cent and 7.7 per cent rises in passenger numbers.
Major airports are defined as those attracting more than 25 million passengers a year. Dublin airport recorded almost 28 million passengers in 2016, up 2.8 million on the previous year.
Passenger growth
The passenger growth at Dublin airport was aided by the launch of 19 new routes last year, while additional capacity was added on 31 existing services.
"Almost all our airline customers increased their operations at Dublin in 2016 and we'd like to thank them for their business during the year," said Dublin airport managing director Vincent Harrison.
Passenger traffic across the European airport network showed strong momentum last year, posting an average growth of 5.1 per cent with airports in the euro zone seeing passenger volumes increasing by 6.7 per cent despite the impact of terrorist attacks in mainland Europe.
Traffic at non-EU airports posted an average 0.9 per cent decrease, primarily due to a 6.6 per cent decline in passenger numbers at Turkish airports caused by terrorism and political instability.
Biggest airport
Europe’s biggest airport overall last year was London Heathrow with 75.7 million passengers. It was followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 65.9 million passengers, Amsterdam Schiphol (63.6 million), Frankfurt (60.7 million) and Istanbul Ataturk (60 million)
In December, passenger traffic grew by 10.9 per cent ,with Europe surpassing Asia-Pacific to become the fastest-growing world region.
Dublin was ranked the fourth fastest-growing major airport for the month, with passenger volumes up 13.3 per cent year-on-year, placing it behind Moscow SVO, Barcelona and London Gatwick but ahead of Paris Orly.
Freight traffic grew across Europe’s airports by 4.1 per cent, the best performance since 2010.
