Passenger traffic up 10% in the first three quarters of 2011: Munich Airport sets new passenger record

From January through the end of September 2011, more travelers used Munich Airport than ever before in the first three quarters of a calendar year. The approximately 28.6 million arriving and departing passengers represented a 10 percent increase as compared with the same period a year earlier. Moreover, the last day of this traffic period – September 30, 2011 – produced yet another all-time high of just under 140,000 passengers, some 10,000 more than the record set last year. The number of aircraft movements increased by more than 6 percent in the first three quarters to 310,730.

International traffic deserves much of the credit for the fact that Munich Airport’s strong growth again outpaced the overall performance of the European aviation sector. During the first nine months of 2011 about 17 million passengers used the attractive range of continental services to and from Munich – an increase of nearly 1.9 million, or 12 percent, over the previous year. Routes to and from destinations in Eastern Europe and the CIS states accounted for 600,000 of these additional travelers.

Traffic between Munich and cities in Turkey and Spain was up by 16 percent and 6 percent, respectively, which added up to a gain of more than 300,000 in the number of seats sold. Intercontinental traffic remains a reliable source of growth at Munich Airport.

This segment experienced 9 percent growth in total passengers to approximately 4.3 million – an increase of 344,000. Strong increases were recorded in particular for services to Brazil (31 percent), Qatar (35 percent) and Singapore (44 percent). Flights to Canada also showed a very positive trend in the period under review, with a 22 percent year-on-year increase in passengers. Also up by a healthy margin were passenger numbers on South African routes, which already experienced hefty increases in the previous year thanks to the Football World Cup, and now weigh in with a solid gain of more than 4 percent.

In the category of flown airfreight, the total volume of 214,000 tons handled in the first nine months of this year is also a new record. It represents a rise of 7 percent as compared with the same period a year earlier, mainly owing to the enormous increase in cargo traffic in the first two quarters.