The FINANCIAL — Cologne Bonn Airport is looking back on the busiest year in its history. Altogether, passenger traffic and cargo in 2015 produced 17.8 million traffic units.
This beat the previous record year in 2007 (17.5 million). Passenger traffic accounted for the biggest share of that. Some 10.3 million passengers chose Cologne/Bonn last year; that represents a rise of 9.4 percent. Even though cargo grew by merely 0.4 percent, with around 758,000 metric tons (previous year 754,000) it reached a new all-time high, according to Cologne Bonn Airport.
“Closing a year with a record result is of course especially pleasing”, says airport boss Michael Garvens. “As an airport situated between its bigger competitors, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, that can only succeed with the right strategic direction. We are relying heavily on low-cost traffic, which we have also been offering on long-haul routes since November. I think the success proves us right.”
The clear growth in passenger traffic is mainly down to low-cost traffic; Ryanair and Eurowings have contributed to that. The growth was particularly strong in the final quarter. A boost of 17 percent made Cologne/Bonn the strongest growing airport in Germany. “We will grow again this year, too, and almost certainly beat the mark of 11 million passengers,” adds Garvens.
Cargo traffic remained stable at a high level. Here too, the final quarter was the strongest. 10 percent in December ensured that a new record level was reached in this traffic segment as well.
At 129,000, the number of take-offs and landings in 2015 was around 4 percent over the previous year, but about 17 percent below the previous record year in 2007.
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