ACI Europe: Regional airports’ direct connectivity down 3.4% since 2008

ACI Europe stated (14-May-2014) regional airports' growth has significantly underperformed the industry average - with passenger traffic growing by just 3.4% between 2008 and 2013 compared to an overall industry average of 11%. ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec said: "After 10 years of extremely dynamic growth, the global financial crisis was really a turning point for regional airports across Europe. Their traffic recovery has lagged behind the industry average. This is mainly due to the fact that airlines have not added much capacity in the market and that they have tended to retrench on hubs, trunk routes and larger markets which are able to deliver higher yields." ACI Europe added that while 1Q2014 indicates that passenger traffic at regional airports is "finally growing more in line with the rest of the industry", it noted: "The slow pace of the economic recovery and continued structural market changes are pointing to the permanence of slower growth prospects and increased competitive pressures". Mr Jankovec added: "Low Cost Carriers are moving upmarket, increasingly targeting primary or larger airports. At the same time, Full Service Carriers tend to limit capacity growth to their long-haul network out of their hub airports, while Regional Airlines are focused on survival. All this means regional airports will continue to face significant headwinds - with network instability, seasonality risks and fierce inter-airport competition." ACI Europe also noted: "The number one challenge for regional airports remains economic sustainability. The traffic recovery has not yielded an improvement in profitability, with 58% of airports with less than 5 million passengers per annum and 75% of those with less than 1 million passenger per annum now being loss making. Their ability to increase their aeronautical charges is almost non-existent, due to the impact this would have on keeping existing air services and attracting new ones. With public financing retreating and tighter EU State aid rules, the only way forward appears to be cutting costs further". Mr Jankovec warned: "In the wake of the financial and euro-zone crises, most regional airports have already gone through extensive cost cutting. There is very little low hanging fruit remaining and we now face the very real prospect of airport closures in several countries - notably in the UK, France, Germany and Italy". [more - original PR]