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Cork Airport
Not content with launching a brand new airport brand, Cork Airport has become the first in the world to launch a flight tracking feature in its smartphone app that allows passengers to click on a flight number and track live updates of exactly where the plane is in real time. The flight tracking feature shows the aircraft’s route, speed, type of aircraft, altitude, distance travelled and total distance to destination, as well as a live map of flights in and out of the airport that can be filtered by arrivals and departures.
Paris-Orly Airport
Grew by 2.1% in 2014.
The Espace business, a new lounge concept dedicated to business travellers, has been unveiled at Paris-Orly Airport. Located in Hall 2 of the West Terminal – the departure lounge with the highest volume of business clients – this free, digitally-connected lounge enables passengers to make the most of the time spent waiting for their flight. The facility also includes a dedicated social network, allowing users to arrange meetings with each other at the airport, affording them more access to business information and opportunities for innovative collaborations.
Brussels Airport
Expected to break the 22m pax barrier in 2015.
Brussels Airport Company and Belgocontrol launched www.batc.be, a website on which everyone can consult information about air traffic. The website provides information on air traffic from and to Brussels Airport. It not only provides information on the runways in use at that particular moment, but also on the flight paths and noise measurements at and around the airport.
Frankfurt Airport
With 1.3% and 4.6% growth so far in 2015, the airport is on course to break 60m in 2015.
Frankfurt Airport has started work on the redesign of its Terminal 1 forecourt and access roads. The €36 million construction project is expected to last around 14 months and will focus on the terminal façade and entrances, as well as the pedestrian areas and roadways on the arrivals level of the terminal forecourt.
Venice Airport
Grew in 7 out of 12 months in 2014 to record overall 1% growth.
Venice Marco Polo Airport has implemented Airport Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM) and connected to the EUROCONTROL Network Manager. It is the third Italian airport to do so. Milan-Linate and others are expected to follow soon. A-CDM is a process at the airport that optimises the turnaround process based upon an integrated platform which shares real-time information about the status of all departing flights with all local operational partners and with the Network Manager Operations Centre.
Keflavik Airport
Grew by an impressive 26% in January 2015.
Keflavík International Airport was ranked the best airport in Europe in the 2014 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Survey Awards announced by ACI. The survey, which has become the world’s leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark, is based on passenger feedback on airports’ performance with regard to the quality of its services.
This is the third time that Keflavík International Airport has received such recognition for outstanding results. In the Best Airport by Region (Europe) category, runners-up to Keflavik were Sheremetyevo Airport, Porto Airport, Malta International Airport and Zurich Airport.
Swedavia
Sweden’s biggest airports handled over 40m pax in 2014.
Swedavia is now the first airport operator to join the Fly Green Fund in the Nordic countries. The Fly Green Fund is a Nordic initiative that gives companies and organisations an opportunity to become involved and reduce their environmental impact by kick-starting the market for flights in the Nordic countries that use biofuel. This is done by jointly funding the extra cost of biofuel today compared to fossil fuel, as well as by launching the production of aviation biofuel in the Nordic countries made from local Nordic raw materials.
Vilnius Airport
Double-digit growth in January should see the airport break 3m pax in 2015.
Passengers using Vilnius Airport in Lithuania will now have access to six new self-service check-in kiosks to help expedite the departure process. The kiosks are currently available to passengers flying with Austrian Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. The terminals cost approximately €260,000 (US$291,700) each and are part of a project to develop electronic services at Lithuanian airports by the European Regional Development Fund.
Sofia Airport
Handled nearly 300,000 passengers in January.
The extension of the red line of the Sofia metro reaching Sofia Airport Terminal 2 was launched on 2 April. The other extension of the same line – to the Business Park – is expected to be completed at the beginning of May. The line will be used by about 90,000 people daily. Sofia received €400m from the EU Operational Programme for Transport and Transport Infrastructure 2014-2020 for the extension of the metro lines.
Dalaman Airport
Double-digit growth so far in 2015.
Turkey’s Dalaman Airport will receive a €175m loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the construction and operation of a new domestic terminal. The airport will use the fund to construct an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly domestic terminal with road access and parking facilities. The new terminal will be able to boost the airport’s annual domestic passenger capacity from the current three million to 10 million passengers.
