Annual Report 2008 (pdf) - Flughafen München

Geschäftsbereiche
Aviation
27
Eastern European passenger traffic booms
In the continental segment, aircraft movements
increased by 2.7 percent and passenger numbers
by 2.2 percent to around 20 million. For the most
part, this gain in European traffic was due to the
popularity of services to Eastern Europe, which
saw a swift rise of 11.5 percent in passengers.
Munich Airport also added a new destination in this
region – Tallinn, Estonia’s capital – to its timetable.
As in past years, Spain, Italy and the United
Kingdom were the destination countries with
the most traffic in 2008. Passenger numbers
were highest on flights to London Heathrow
(around 977,500), followed by Paris Charles de
Gaulle (806,200) and Barcelona (632,000).
Domestic traffic: Hamburg in high demand
In the domestic segment, movements were
down 5.4 percent, but mainly because carriers
were operating larger aircraft on routes in Germany.
The number of passenger movements – close
to 10 million – dipped 0.5 percent, mostly as a
result of scaled-back hub operations for vacation
traffic, but also because of industrial action at
Lufthansa in July and August, which hit domestic
services hardest. Like a year earlier, passenger
numbers were highest on services to and from
Hamburg (around 1.7 million), followed by Düsseldorf
with around 1.6 million passengers.
Record figures
In 2008, more than 200 airlines operated
scheduled and charter services to and from
Munich. Of these, 99 carriers regularly served
244 destinations in 71 countries. Twenty-one
of these destinations were in Germany, 152 in
Europe and 71 in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Our 2008 traffic statistics at Munich Airport again
included new all-time highs. September was
the busiest month in the airport’s history, with
3,253,823 passengers. Friday, September 26,
was our busiest day ever, with a record-breaking
128,099 passengers. On average, we handled
94,346 passenger movements and 1,150 takeoffs
and landings a day in the commercial segment.
Contraction on the heels of strong gains
In spite of new records and continued growth,
aviation-sector demand stalled on a large scale as
a result of the global economic downturn in 2008,
and Munich, like other airports, felt the effects.
Given these circumstances, 2009 will prove a difficult
year – one in which the entire aviation industry,
including Munich Airport – will see traffic volumes
decline. However, past experience has shown that
growth in the aviation sector is rarely linear over
prolonged periods. On the contrary, it tends to follow
a pattern of steep declines followed by phases of
rapid gains. Typically, when the economy reignites,
Regular flights to
244 destinations in
71 countries