North Atlantic Traffic Starting to Take Off
The Gathering and the signs of recovery in the US economy are spearheading significant growth in transatlantic traffic.Total flights in Irish airspace in July 2013 have increased by 3.4% when compared to July 2012. There was an average of 1,684 daily overflights during July 2013, with the busiest day being 26th July with 1,829 flights in Irish airspace. This was in addition to the airport traffic, which averaged a further 655 flights daily.
Flights on the North Atlantic serviced by the IAA (Europe/North America) saw an increase of 2.7% in July 2013, when compared to July 2012.
In relation to international arrivals and departures, the commercial terminal traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports increased by 6.3% in July 2013, when compared to July 2012. Individually, the July 2013 figures for the three State Airports, when compared to the same month in the previous year are:
Commercial terminal flights at Dublin were up by 8%, with an average of 523 daily movements.
Commercial terminal flights at Cork were down by 4.4%, with an average of 69 daily movements.
Commercial terminal flights at Shannon were up by 5.6%, with an average of 63 daily movements.
On a cumulative basis commercial terminal traffic for Shannon, Dublin and Cork Airports for January to July 2013 was up by 1.9%, compared to the same period in 2012.
An analysis of the July 2013 data from EUROCONTROL also shows that six of Ireland’s top ten ‘Airport Pairs’ showed growth (or neutral growth) when compared to July 2012. The most significant growth was for Dublin–Birmingham (+49.3%), Manchester–Dublin (+22.6%), London/Gatwick–Dublin (+12.6%) and London/Heathrow–Dublin (+11.6%).
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) also reported that June was a positive month for passenger markets. “The stability in the Eurozone, albeit tentative, is giving a boost to business and consumer confidence and the load factor at 81.7% shows that airlines are efficiently meeting increasing demand for travel. But there are some headwinds. Growth in the BRICS economies, including China, is slowing and oil prices remain high. The industry is still on track to make $4 per passenger this year for a global net profit of $12.7 billion. But there is little margin for error and even a small change in the second half of the year could shift the outlook significantly,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.