10 The Airport Industry is rising to its challenges By Martin Lamprecht
The global airport industry is meeting ongoing challenges with new technologies and better service to cope with the growing air traffic demand. The airport of the future will be a smarter airport.
Two years is a long time in the airport industry, so the biennial inter airport Europe is good occasion to reflect on the developments since the previous event in October 2009 and to meet and network to discuss the best business tools and practices for the challenges of the coming years.
Among these challenges for the airport industry that have not gone away: political regulation and taxation, revenue management and diversification, environmental sustainability, implementation of new technologies, cost of security, service enhancement and capacity management.
Generally speaking, the dark clouds of the global recession that hung over the previous event in Munich have lifted to some extend and the global economic conditions for airports and suppliers look considerably brighter today than they did in 2009. However, the recovery is not happening around the globe at an equal pace. Some markets are already booming again, including Southeast Asia and China, whereas others, like Europe and North America, are still struggling under currency crisis, deficit and high unemployment.
On a global scale, the numbers are starting to look encouraging again in most areas, when considering the longer term trends. Over the past 4 years, airline passenger numbers climbed 3.4%
worldwide, according to data published by Airport Council International (ACI). But the data also shows how widely different the regions of the world were faring within the same time frame. While passenger volumes grew by 32.7% in the Middle East region, air travel dropped by 6.1% in North America since 2007; both areas representing the extreme ends of the growth / decline spectrum. The only other world region with declining numbers was Europe with passenger volumes dropping by 1.5%. Europe and North America remain the largest two air travel markets, but Asia Pacific is gaining ground quickly, with a 4-year growth rate of 17.1%. Latin America was another strong growth market, up by 16.7% last year. African numbers were up by 11.4%.
The UAE airports have been growing at an impressive rate. Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport hit a record 47.2 million in 2010, up by 15.3% year- on-year, as reported by Dubai Airports. The figure was 2.4% higher than the 46.1 million originally projected for the year.
Munich Airport has reported record- breaking results for First Quarter 2011. For the first time in its history, the airport topped the 8 million passenger mark in the first three months of a calendar year, with the total number up 12% over the same period a year earlier. Sharp increases were also seen in total aircraft movements. At just under 97,000 flights, the number of take-offs and landings in Munich in the first quarter was approximately 10% higher than in 2010. The strong surge in air traffic carried over to the global movement
of cargo as well: Munich Airport handled almost 70,000 tonnes of flown airfreight and airmail in the first three months of the year – an increase of 21% in cargo as compared with the same period last year. Increases in the passenger traffic at Munich Airport in long-haul and European traffic segments were higher than the overall average gains, with the number of long-haul passengers up by 13.2%, and flights to and from European cities carrying 13.7% more passengers. Domestic traffic recorded growth of nearly 7% in the first quarter.
With a total of about 53 million passengers at Frankfurt in 2010, Fraport saw traffic climb by more than 4% year-on-year, even though European flights were grounded for several days due to the ash cloud crisis as well as the severe winter weather at the beginning and end of the year. Air cargo recorded an even stronger increase, rising by more than 20% to 2.2 million tonnes in 2010. Frankfurt Airport not only achieved the highest cargo figure in its history but also confirmed its position as Europe’s leading air cargo hub.
Annual traffic statistics tend to be heavily influenced by local events of disruptive nature. Lately, many regions have been hit by natural and political events, ranging from volcanic ash clouds over the North Atlantic and South Pacific, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Cyclones, tornadoes and severe winter weather in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Europe, as well as political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East. These events caused significant disruptions for airline and airport operations; in many cases closing airports for days or longer, grounding aircraft and stranding passengers.
Overall, the airline industry has learnt from past economic downturns and natural disasters and has become more resilient through better capacity- and yield management and by being better prepared for disruptive events. However, airlines, airports and governments still have much to learn in order to mitigate
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Industry News | Branchen News
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