VINCI Airports – Traffic to 30 June 2024

Passenger traffic rose 8.2% in the second quarter compared with 2023 (7.5% excluding Edinburgh and Budapest)

Passenger traffic rose sharply in Edinburgh and Budapest, the two airports that joined the VINCI Airports network in June

Almost 81 million passengers travelled through airports in the VINCI Airports network this quarter, rising 8.2% compared to 2023 (1.8% higher than in 2019). After April figures slightly lower than the 2019 level, passenger traffic rebounded in May and June, outpacing 2019 levels.

This very good Q2 performance is due in particular to sustained traffic growth in the network’s European airports. The high proportion of bank holidays in May this year boosted flights to holiday destinations in southern Europe, which attracted large numbers of passengers, served by capacity increases among low-cost airline companies. In Portugal, passenger numbers continued to grow at a rapid pace for the great majority of airports and for all flight-length segments. Funchal airport (Madeira) even recorded historic passenger numbers for a month of May (up 52 % vs 2019). In France, traffic rose to record levels for May at Nantes, thanks to routes with Spain, the United Kingdom and Portugal. Belgrade airport benefitted in Q2 from the increase in services (Air Serbia up 6%, Lufthansa 9%, Swiss 12% vs 2023) notably to the big European cities (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris). Traffic volumes at London Gatwick airport were boosted by strong demand for flights to the Mediterranean but even more by long-haul connections with the United States and China (Air China, China Eastern, Norse Atlantic). The airports in Cabo Verde, where traffic volumes are growing sharply, posted record passenger numbers in May, benefitting from the good performance of the European market (Portugal, United Kingdom, France).

Traffic volumes also rose appreciably at Edinburgh and Budapest, the two airports that joined the VINCI Airport network in June. At Edinburgh, traffic levels rose fast during the quarter thanks to an appreciable rise in capacity on the part of both low-cost (easyJet, Jet2) and traditional airlines (KLM, Lufthansa, SAS, British). Demand for routes with North America is growing sharply, supported by the historic operators (United, Air Canada) and new services launched by Westjet and JetBlue. Budapest airport benefitted this quarter from the addition of two new aircraft based there by the historic operator Wizz Air for the summer season, plus an increase in the Ryanair service offer. In addition, it has strengthened its connections to Asian destinations, with, in particular four airline companies now offering 20 weekly routes to China.

Elsewhere, trends in traffic remained very brisk, mostly thanks to international routes. The Dominican Republic airports benefitted fully from the good performance of long-haul flights to Europe and Brazil. Santiago du Chili airport saw record passenger numbers in June, fuelled notably by dynamic trends in international lines (Brazil up 74%, Peru 19%). In Japan, passenger numbers on some regional routes (Seoul, Hong-Kong, Taipei, Shanghai) continue to remain much higher than pre-crisis trends. In a positive signal of gradual restoration of traffic with China, several Chinese airlines (e.g. Spring Airlines, China Eastern, Shangdong Airlines) have recently announced the reopening of routes for the coming summer season.

In the paragraphs above, except where otherwise indicated, variations refer to traffic levels in the second quarter of 2024 compared with the second quarter of 2023.

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Smooth operation at Budapest airport...........

In the words of Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”, and in the modern age of international travel, this first step is often an airport. 

With 16 million passengers passing through it in 2019, Budapest Airport is the biggest international airport in Hungary and a central hub for Southeastern Europe. However, the airport’s control and SCADA systems for operating critical infrastructure were ageing and not standardized. Here’s how COPA-DATA helped.

Airports have sophisticated systems in place to handle air traffic and passenger operations. Planes are guided step by step to their gates and starting positions by air-ground light systems (AGLS). Checked baggage and cargo is dealt with by separate automated baggage handling systems (BHS) to ensure that all baggage is registered, inspected, and transported to the correct place.

Budapest Liszt Ferenc Airport (BUD) is the international airport of Hungary’s capital, located just ten miles from central Budapest. In 2019 it was used by over 16 million passengers, but it is also an international freight airport and serves military purposes, meaning that it must be fully operational all year round.

System heterogeneity

Since its opening in 1950, BUD has undergone frequent extensions, modernisation and redesigns. These changes have been carried out at varying time points and by different contractors, meaning that while some existing systems and installations have remained unchanged, its overall system landscape is very heterogeneous. Because of this, the airport relies on several control systems for its AGLS and BHS.

“For operation and monitoring, we had a total of six Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems,” says Géza Kulcsár, control systems group leader at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport. “No less than four were in use for the BHS alone.”

As these systems had all been implemented by different systems integrators for specific installations, they all only had interfaces and visualisations for each of their individual purposes. This not only led to inconsistency between the look and feel of the human-machine interfaces (HMIs) making the operation less user-friendly but also increased the risk of misinterpretation.

The variability between these applications also meant that maintenance staff needed to be trained on each system, but also had to rely on several different integrators for support and modifications, some of which were no longer in existence or unable to assist with airport installations. “Comparably simple tasks such as operating system updates frequently turned out to be formidable challenges,” Géza Kulcsár recalls. “Breakdowns of partial systems occurred regularly.”

Achieving standardisation

Radioactive alert closes Budapest Airport for three hours on Wednesday

Photo REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

A radioactive alert caused a terminal at Ferenc Liszt Airport in Budapest Airport to be closed for three hours on Wednesday night. Officials advise that terminal 2B at the airport was shut down between 1930 and 2230 to facilitate a fast investigation into an overheated container carrying a radioactive isotope.

Firemen were seen entering the cargo compartment of a Turkish Airlines aircraft that was parked on the tarmac of Budapest Airport, in Hungary, during the incident that closed the airport. A spokesperson for the Hungarian Disaster Management Authority advised that "Material damaging to health did not get into the environment," adding that "Passengers are perfectly safe."

According to local media reports, the isotope was iridium which had been ordered by a Hungarian company from a firm based in the Russian city of Dimitrovgrad. The container carrying the isotope arrived in Budapest on a Turkish Airlines flight on Wednesday evening from Istanbul.

The passengers and crew of the flight on which the container was carried, nor the passengers and staff at the airport were in any danger according to information from the Disaster Management Authority.  Turkish Airlines has not yet responded to requests for comment.