The Leading Airport Magazine

By Ralph Anker, editor, anna.aero

Measured by the number of destinations offered by scheduled airlines, the EU’s top 15 airports features only one ‘new entry’ with Barcelona (new in at number 13) replacing Milan Malpensa which was ranked 10th last year but has fallen to 17th as a result of Alitalia dropping half of its destinations as part of its survival strategy. The top four positions in this ranking have remained unchanged for the second year running but London airports Gatwick and Heathrow have swapped places with Gatwick now offering more scheduled destinations than its more illustrious near neighbour. Madrid continues its impressive climb up the rankings advancing two places to sixth.

London Stansted has dropped four places as a number of low-cost destinations have been axed or become more seasonal, with flights focused more during peak periods.

The biggest climber is Brussels, which has increased its range of destinations by 27 to 154. However, some of this can be attributed to the 30-plus destinations served by jetairfly (the Belgium subsidiary of TUIfly) now being considered as scheduled services.

Although Berlin Tegel’s net gain is just nine routes, this disguises the fact that several mostly low-frequency routes have been lost while 16 new routes, spread across several airlines, have been gained, including Air Berlin, Cimber Air, LTU, Lufthansa, Luxair, Meridiana, SunExpress and TUIfly.

So where has the growth come from? An analysis of those airports which have seen the biggest increase in the number of destinations on offer continues to highlight the importance of Europe’s low-cost carriers as the catalysts for growth. A total of 24 airports across the EU have seen double-digit increases in the number of destinations available in April. The top 30 airports in terms of new routes have added almost 400 between them, representing nearly 80% of all the new routes offered.

Of course, some airlines have lost routes and the poorest performers in this regard are Cologne/Bonn (down 10), Heathrow and Milan Malpensa (both down 11), Rome Ciampino (down 12), London Stansted (down 13) and Leipzig/Halle (down 14). Some of these, like Cologne/Bonn, Stansted and Ciampino, have experienced rapid LCC generated growth, but airlines are now being more brutal in axing routes that do not generate a sufficient financial return. Ciampino’s case is rather different as a threat of a movement limit has encouraged Wizz Air to move its flights to Rome’s Fiumicino airport, while easyJet axed several less profitable routes. Leipzig’s poor showing can be explained by the decision of TUIfly to considerably reduce its flying programme, and hence the number of routes on offer from the airport.

The top 30 EU airports in terms of most new routes fall broadly into two categories. The first category consists of major airports, such as Frankfurt, London Gatwick, Madrid and Paris CDG where a few new destinations represent a relatively small amount of additional traffic. The second category comprises smaller regional airports which have attracted one or more major LCCs to base themselves there. Given the number of new routes that Ryanair alone has launched in the last six months (over 180) its bases feature prominently in the above listings. Alicante, Bremen, Bristol, Dublin, East Midlands, Girona, Stockholm Skavsta, Valencia and Weeze all owe their growth in network scope during the last 12 months primarily to Ryanair.

Central European airports growing fast

Polish airports are well represented in these rankings. Gdansk, Katowice and Poznan all generated at least a dozen new routes with Poznan’s growth particularly spectacular as the number of destinations almost tripled from nine to 25. Of the 16 new routes started Wizz Air is responsible for six of them, highlighting its growing influence in the Polish market.

Two other Central European airports have made this list for the second successive year. The rapid growth of Air Baltic has helped generate plenty of new destinations from Riga, while Bucharest’s second airport at Baneasa is favoured by low-cost airlines and has been helped by the rapid growth of local LCC Blue Air. Incredibly, 10 of the 31 destinations available from the airport are served by two or more carriers, a situation that is unlikely to remain viable for very long.

German airports follow different growth strategies

Dortmund Airport’s net gain of 14 routes is particularly impressive as it lost four destinations (Berlin Tempelhof, Leipzig/Halle, Milan Malpensa and Nice) during the year. Given that easyJet has a major base there it is surprising that only two of the new routes (Edinburgh and Thessaloniki) were generated by the airline, with the rest coming from a mix of Air Berlin (one), Centralwings (one), Germanwings (seven), Hamburg International (one), OLT (one), Sterling (two) and Wizz Air (three).

While fellow German airports Bremen and Weeze have been reliant on Ryanair for their rapid growth in the last 12 months, Berlin Tegel and Hamburg have achieved their growth through a broader portfolio of new carriers. Although Berlin Tegel’s net gain is just nine routes, this disguises the fact that several mostly low-frequency routes have been lost while gaining a total of 16 new routes spread across several airlines including Air Berlin, Cimber Air, LTU, Lufthansa, Luxair, Meridiana, SunExpress and TUIfly.

Growth spread across Europe

Twelve different countries are represented among the top 30 fastest growing EU airports, covering the four corners of the EU from Portugal to Ireland to Latvia and Romania. Germany and Spain lead the way with six airports each followed by the UK with five and Poland with three. Italy (with only Rome FCO) and France (with the two main Paris airports) would appear to be under-represented this year.

The ‘Routes’ effect?

Last year’s host of Routes (Stockholm) has both Arlanda and Skavsta represented in the top 30 and this year’s venue for Routes Europe (Porto) also makes it thanks to a net gain of nine new routes. Despite losing services to Nice, a total of 10 new destinations have been added provided by easyJet (Basel), Ryanair (Bristol, Brussels Charleroi, Milan Bergamo, Pisa, Stockholm Skavsta and Valencia) and TAP Portugal (Bologna, Rome FCO, San Salvador).

Recent announcements indicate that airlines across Europe are continuing to look for opportunities for profitable growth. With the likes of easyJet and Ryanair receiving several new aircraft every month, airport marketing executives should take heart that although the rate of network growth across Europe may be slowing there remain many airlines on the lookout for new route opportunities.

NB: Data Source for tables – OAG Max Online for w/c 23 April 2007 and 21 April 2008)

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