Overall growth in passenger traffic for European airports associated with ACI Europe was 6.2% when compared to 2016, with 1.1 billion passengers served.
The main hubs6, representing 36% of total passenger traffic in associated airports, grew 4.8% on last year. Increases were most notable in Amsterdam (+7.7%), Zurich (+6.3%), Frankfurt (+6.1%) and Madrid (+5.9%). Malpensa, with a growth of 14.2% over the previous year, stands out among the airports that handle 'point-to-point' traffic, followed by Brussels (+13.6%), Manchester (+8.6%), Barcelona (+7.1%) and Dublin (+6.0%). Copenhagen was stable compared with the previous year, whereas Berlin posted a decline (-3.7%).
Cargo traffic increased 7.2%, with a total of 11.9 million tons handled. Among the top five7 European airports in terms of cargo volumes, Frankfurt is first with over 2.1 million tons, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 2.0 million tons, Amsterdam with 1.8 million and London Heathrow with 1.7 million.
Malpensa airport ranks fifth in terms of cargo volumes handled (576.5 thousand tons) and in the top five, it ranks as second airport in terms of percentage growth (+7.4%) after London Heathrow (+10.2%).
5 Source: ACI Europe Rapid Data Exchange Programme (42 associated airports), Passenger arrivals+departures+transits
6 Airport hubs: Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Zurich, Rome Fiumicino, Madrid and London Heathrow
7 Excluded: Luxembourg, Cologne and Liege which generate higher volumes of cargo transport than Malpensa, since not included in ACI Europe’s Rapid Data Exchange Programme