Dublin Airport was the fastest growing major airport in Europe in the first six months of 2016, with passenger numbers up by 13.4%. The growth follows last year’s performance when the airport transited 25 million passengers for the first time.
Data from ACI Europe, the trade association for European airports, show that in H1 traffic at Dublin Airport grew faster than at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport (+12.7%) Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen (+12.0%), Copenhagen (+10.9%) and Schiphol in the Netherlands (+9.9%).
The average growth at European airports was 4.9% in H1, with airports in the European Union reporting stronger average passenger growth of 6.2%, according to ACI. Traffic at non-EU airports within Europe was almost flat in the first half, growing by just 0.5%.
Vincent Harrison of DAA said: “Dublin Airport had a very strong performance in the first half of this year, welcoming just over 13 million passengers. The growth in passenger numbers is having a significant impact on the Irish economy, bringing increased trade and investment and also driving higher visitor numbers, which is in turn boosting the tourist industry.”
A €10 million upgrade to the Arrivals Hall in Terminal 1 is under way and ten new aircraft parking stands entered use earlier this year as part of a €20 million upgrade. The airport recently completed a €14 million expansion to the Terminal 2 multi-storey car park, which doubled the number of available spaces, opened a new business lounge after US pre-clearance in T2, and installed new self-service check-in and bag drop kiosks in both terminals.
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ACI Europe does not expect the growth in numbers to continue to trend at the same pace, however. Director General Olivier Jankovec said that there was a slowing of growth in non-EU airports, which was expected to continue for the rest of the year.
He added: “EU airports are also likely to see a continued softening of passenger traffic on the back of lower consumer confidence fuelled by terrorism and the decision of the UK to leave the EU, as well as major full service airlines reining in capacity. The only positive remains the price of oil, which should help limit the extent of capacity cuts and keep low cost carriers in expansion mode.”
