Leipzig/Halle Airport
2,365,141 passengers passed through Leipzig/Halle Airport last year – an increase of 7.9 percent over 2016. This growth was supported by both developments in scheduled and tourist traffic. The demand for destinations in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus and Bulgaria developed in a particularly positive manner. The number of aircraft movements at Leipzig/Halle Airport increased by 8.3 percent to a figure of 69,815 take-offs and landings.
Further significant growth in air freight volumes
The volume of air freight at Leipzig/Halle Airport, Europe’s fifth-largest cargo hub, rose to a figure of approx. 1,138,477 tonnes in 2017; this represents an increase of 8.2 percent over the previous year.
A new absolute monthly record in the company’s history was set in December when the figure rose to more than 105,768 tonnes.
Dresden Airport
Passenger numbers at Dresden Airport (1,709,277) were 2.5 percent higher than in the previous year. The expansion in tourist traffic and scheduled services both contributed to this positive development – particularly the ongoing growing involvement of the airline Germania at the airport.
The number of aircraft movements (29,216) was actually lower than the figure for the previous year, but this was largely due to the insolvency of Air Berlin; it had connected Dresden and Düsseldorf as many as four times a day until the middle of the year.
“Thanks to new services for both scheduled and tourist traffic and a further increase in demand, particularly to destinations in North Africa, the numbers of passengers using Leipzig/Halle Airport rose significantly in 2017. This trend gives us great hope for 2018, when more aircraft will be based at the airport and a growing commitment from tour operators will enhance the timetable,” says Markus Kopp, the Board Member for Marketing and Sales at Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG and the Managing Director of Dresden Airport. He adds, “Dresden Airport made a promising start to last year and finished 2017 with an increase in passenger numbers. This was partly possible because of the growing involvement of the airline Germania, which is planning to continue to expand its services in 2018 too, and also as a result of the positive developments overall in the scheduled services sector. As a result, it’s been possible to more than compensate for setbacks like the failure of Air Berlin and the decline in demand for travel to Turkey.”
“Air freight volumes at Leipzig/Halle Airport grew by more than eight percent and reached a figure of more than 1.1 million tonnes; this was the strongest growth at any of Germany’s cargo airports. The growth is being particularly spurred on by the express freight business – but freight and special charter services are also developing in an above-average manner,” says Johannes Jähn, the Board Spokesman at Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG and Managing Director of Leipzig/Halle Airport.