Lisbon and Porto are among the European airports that registered the largest passenger increases of 2014.
According to a recent report by the Airports Council International – Europe, passenger traffic in the EU increased 4.9% last year, “with Greece, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Belgium and Ireland significantly outperforming the EU average”.
Lisbon’s Portela Airport accounts for one of the best improvements, with 18 million passengers passing through the airport in 2014 – a 13.3% increase on 2013.
It is believed that the springtime opening of a Ryanair base at Lisbon airport – flying to 17 European destinations – played an important part in the increase of passenger traffic.
In fact, AIC – Europe stresses that “most of the increase in passenger numbers has been fuelled by low-cost airlines, which have expanded their market share by moving upmarket into primary airports”.
Porto’s Sá Carneiro Airport also registered an 8.7% increase, welcoming around 7 million passengers last year.
Although no data was revealed for Faro Airport, AIC- Europe said that Portuguese airports received around 36 million passengers in 2014.
Elsewhere, Poland, France, Germany, Austria, Latvia and the Czech Republic all saw airport traffic dropping below the European average.
ACI – Europe’s ‘Airport Traffic Report’ carries data on 210 airports, representing over “88% of European air passenger traffic”.
BY MICHAEL BRUXO
news@algarveresident.com
