Archive:Air transport statistics at regional level
- Data from March 2008, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
The rapid growth of air transport has been one of the most important transport sector developments in Europe and throughout the world. Since 1995, intra-EU and domestic passenger air transport increased by more than 50 %. While the events of 11 September 2001 led to a decline in 2002, growth rates resumed thereafter. There is no doubt that the completion of the liberalisation of the air transport market in the European Union contributed significantly to this development, most noticeably through the massive expansion of low-cost airlines, which also led to a remarkable growth of smaller, regional airports, which are less congested and have lower landing fees than large airports in the capital regions.
Eurostat’s statistical databases contain air transport statistics at a regional level for passengers and freight. These series show passenger and freight movements over NUTS 2 regions measured in thousands of passengers and tonnes, respectively. The passenger data are divided into passengers embarking, disembarking and in transit. The freight statistics data are divided into tonnes of freight loaded and unloaded. Two series are available here, based on different methodologies. The series going back to 1978 ended with reference year 1998 and was replaced by a new time series with different definitions as from 1999.
Currently, data on air transport are collected under Regulation (EC) No 437/2003 of the European Parliament and the Council on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air. This regulation provides for the collection of detailed monthly data for airports handling more than 150 000 passengers per year. For airports handling fewer than 150 000 but more than 15 000 passengers, only aggregated annual data are required, whereas for minor airports no data need to be provided. The data collected at airport level are then aggregated at regional NUTS 2 level.
In this section on air transport, the focus is on the total number of passengers and the total number of tonnes loaded and unloaded in the European top 30 NUTS 2 regions. Table 1 and Table 2 show the top 30 regions with the highest number of air passengers and with the highest volume of air freight in 2006.
- In air passenger transport, the top-ranking regions in terms of the total number of passengers are the capital regions of western Europe. The list is headed by Île-de-France, with a total number of 82.1 million passengers for the airports Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris/Orly, followed by Outer London (Heathrow airport) with 67.3 million passengers, Darmstadt with the Frankfurt/Main airport (52.4 million), Noord Holland (Amsterdam/Schiphol: 46.0 million) Comunidad de Madrid (45.1 million) and Lombardia with several airports geographically spread (36.7 million).
- The big airports in and around western Europe’s capitals also serve as central hubs for intercontinental air traffic. This is especially true for the Heathrow (London), Charles-de-Gaulle (Paris), Frankfurt/Main and Schiphol (Amsterdam) airports.
- In addition to the important capital regions, high air passenger transport volumes can also be observed for Cataluña, Canarias and Oberbayern (München). The high passenger volumes for the south of Spain can be explained to a great extent by tourist traffic.
- Although this is not visible from Table 9.1, a significant number of smaller, regional airports are among the fastest-growing airports because of the ongoing success of low-cost carriers.
- Among the top 30 airports for passenger transport the Praha region, with + 55 %, shows the strongest growth since 2003, followed by Cataluña (+ 41 %), Southern and Eastern in Ireland (+ 35 %), Niederösterreich (+ 32 %), Comunidad Valenciana (+ 31 %), Andalucia and Lisboa (+ 29 %), Oberbayern with München (+ 28 %) and Comunidad de Madrid (+ 27 %). The strong development of air passenger transport at the airports of the Iberian peninsula is especially noteworthy. It is not surprising that the biggest airports do not show the fastest growth, since they are already starting from a high base and are often operating near to maximum capacity. However, the picture may change in the near future due to significant extensions of capacity, e.g. at London Heathrow airport or the Berlin-Schönefeld airport.
- For air freight transport, Darmstadt (Frankfurt/Main) leads the list of the top 30 European regions with 2.12 million tonnes, followed by Noord-Holland (Amsterdam/Schiphol: 1.57 million tonnes), Île-de-France (Paris: 1.42 million tonnes) and Outer London (Heathrow: 1.34 million tonnes). Volumes at other European airports are significantly smaller, indicating that the biggest European airports serve as the main European hubs for air freight transport. Relatively high volumes can also be observed in four other regions, namely: Prov. Vlaams Brabant Bruxelles: 0.71 million tonnes), Köln (Köln-Bonn: 0.69 million tonnes), Luxembourg (0.63 million tonnes) and Lombardia (Milano/Bergamo/Brescia: 0.60 million tonnes).
- While the total volume of air freight transport is limited by comparison with the much higher volumes on road, rail, inland waterways and especially maritime transport, air freight transport is very important for articles with high added value, perishable goods (especially food) and also express parcels, and its importance is steadily growing.
- While air freight transport is dominated by the big airports, the most dynamic growth was at the regional airports of Frankfurt-Hahn in the Koblenz region of Germany and at the airports in Southern and Eastern Ireland. Both regions enjoyed growth of over 200 % between 2003 and 2006. However, the respective reasons behind this development are different. While the growth of the relatively young airport of Frankfurt/Hahn underlines its growing importance, due to the untapped potential of the airport itself, the dynamic development of air transport in Ireland is closely connected to Ireland’s strong economic growth.