TREND IN TRAFFIC VOLUME

NEW PASSENGER RECORD: 31.5 MILLION PASSENGERS AT ZURICH AIRPORT

In 2019, Zurich Airport hit a new all-time high of 31,507,692 passengers, bettering the record set in the previous year by 1.3%. The average growth rate of major European airports was 2.8% in 2019 (source: ACI Airports Council International).

Demand in the local segment showed little change in 2019, with the volume of local passengers remaining virtually unchanged at 22.2 million, representing an increase of 0.1%. At 4.2%, growth in the transfer segment remained strong, however, lifting the transfer volume to 9.2 million by the end of the year. The share of transfer passengers consequently also rose from 28.4% in the previous year to 29.3% in the reporting period. The scheduled and charter segment grew by 1.3% in 2019. Passenger numbers in general aviation declined by 9.6%.

Europe, Zurich Airportʼs most important market, showed a below-average increase of 0.2%. Intercontinental traffic, on the other hand, experienced above-average growth of 4.7%. The biggest increase in demand was seen for flights to the Far East (+5.1%), followed by Latin America (+18.3%), Africa (+10.3%), North America (+2.2%) and the Middle East (+1.2%).

The passenger share of home carrier Swiss rose to 53.6% in the year under review (2018: 52.9%). Edelweiss Air followed with a share of 8.5%, then easyJet with 2.9%, Eurowings with 2.6% and British Airways with 2.1%.

BETTER CAPACITY UTILISATION AND FEWER FLIGHT MOVEMENTS

Flight movements totalled 275,329 in 2019, down 1.1% from the prior-year period. In the scheduled and charter flight segment, the number of flight movements fell by 0.6%. General aviation flight movements contracted by 5.1%.

During the same period, on the other hand, the number of seats offered rose by 1.0%. The increase in seat capacity and growth in the number of passengers per flight movement, from 127 to 130, resulted in a 0.2 percentage point rise in the seat load factor during the reporting year to 78.1%.

DECLINE IN AIR FREIGHT

In 2019, freight volumes at Zurich Airport fell by 8.4% compared with their 2018 levels. A total of 451,827 tonnes of freight were transported during the year under review. While the volume of freight shipped by air decreased by 7.7%, air freight transported by road fell by 10.2%.