2014 A RECORD YEAR FOR AMERIGO VESPUCCI AIRPORT
2.25 MILLION PASSENGERS PASSED THROUGH THE AIRPORT DURING THE YEAR SETTING A NEW BEST-EVER RESULT. ANNUAL GROWTH OF +13,5 %, THE FIRST ITALIAN AIRPORT UNDER 5 MILLION
Florence 5 January 2015 . AdF S.p.A. – 2014 proved to be a bumper year for Florence Airport, beating all records in terms of passenger traffic, both monthly (from April onwards every month beat the monthly record) and annually. The 2 million passenger mark was surpassed, showing a 13.5% growth rate at year end.
In 2014 2,251,994 passengers were carried over the 12 month period.
A best-ever result, despite frequent bad weather conditions in the summer months that heavily conditioned regular flight operations, and massive strike action by Air France pilots which gave rise to numerous cancellations during September, without which the final passenger traffic numbers would have surpassed 2.3 millions. The record result was achieved thanks to the increase in frequency of several destinations, to the use of new and larger aircraft by some of the major airlines and, above all, to the opening of new routes.
Destinations
Traffic analysis confirms Amerigo Vespucci’s position as a Full Service Carrier airport, with a distinct predominance of International flights, accounting for almost 80% of passengers, an increase of 13.5% over 2013. A positive result also for national flights, which rose by 14.3% compared with 2013.
Paris is confirmed as the top destination, with over 462 thousand passengers split between Charles de Gaulle and Orly, followed by Frankfurt with 283 thousand passengers, Rome with 196 thousand, Munich 183 thousand, Zurich 154 thousand, Amsterdam 146 thousand, London (Gatwick and London City Airport) 130 thousand and Barcelona 102 thousand.
Airlines
Vueling stands as AdF’s major partner, with 526 thousand passengers, representing 23% of total passenger numbers, an increase of 72% over the same period of the previous year.
Air France and Lufthansa maintained their position of leading carriers at Florence airport, respectively with 373 thousand and 283 thousand passengers, Alitalia was the fourth airline for number of passengers carried (196 thousand), followed by Air Dolomiti, Swiss and KLM.
All airlines recorded a significant increase in load factor, bearing witness to the recovery of the city of Florence as a tourist destination and the Amerigo Vespucci as a reference airport both for tourism and business travel.
In the words of Marco Carrai, Chairman of Aeroporto di Firenze S.p.A.: "This is a very important result which has been achieved thanks to the efforts of many people. However, it is not a point of arrival but rather a point of departure, which lays the foundations for growth of the Amerigo Vespucci airport as a strategic hub in central Tuscany. Over the next few months we shall already see the first results of the new services to Eastern Europe and other important countries in the Mediterranean area”.
