The number of commercial movements decreased by 8.8% to 11,600, while passenger figures continued to rise by 10.1% reaching 981,387. The one-million mark has already been reached during the first week of July. June 2006 was a trendsetter in particular, with an increase of 12% in the passenger sector and 17.6% less movements compared with June 2005.
Traffic figures for the first six month reveal that scheduled flights were up 21%, a direct effect of new low cost services to Dublin and Brussels-Charleroi. While outgoing charter services decreased by 7.1% as a result of re-designating touristic flights as scheduled services (e.g. Niki to Palma), the number of incoming charter flights increased by 2%. This is good news for tourism in the region.
"Traffic figures for the first six months come as no surprise for the airport management" comments CEO Günther AUER. "We have seen healthy growth in the low cost sector despite the disappointing development in the network sector. Rapid changes in the airline scenario at Salzburg show how difficult it is to make medium-term forecasts. The uptrend in passenger figures for the second half of 2006 will continue with an increase in the average size of aircraft and even better load factors."
Skyeurope has announced it will start its new low cost flights to Paris on 15 September. New services in winter 2006/7 will include British Airways from Gatwick, Thomsonfly from Gatwick, Doncaster, Bournemouth and Manchester and Jet2 from Leeds/Bradford.
Salzburg Airport, Austria's number one regional gateway, expects to handle 1.8 million passengers in 2006 - 100,000 more than in 2005.
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