(11.1.2008) There were more than two million passengers that have passed through the Bratislava Airport in 2007
There was an increase of 4% in 2007 in the number of transported passengers
Compared to December 2006, the number of passengers in December 2007 was higher by 23 208 passengers
For the whole year 2007 the company Letisko M. R. Štefánika – Airport Bratislava, a. s. (BTS) had handled more than two million passengers – exactly 2 024 142 passengers, of which 42 241 were transiting passengers. The two-millionth passenger has passed through the airport's terminal on Friday 21.12.2007 as a passenger of a scheduled flight from Prague of the SkyEurope airlines. In the month of December the Bratislava Airport has handled 143 852 passengers, by more than 23 000 passengers more than in the December 2006, which represents an increase by 19 %. This evidence is by so much more heartening, that by the end of the year the Bratislava Airport has recorded such growth in all types of transportation, including the international scheduled air transport.
Compared to 2006, the number of transported passengers for the year 2007 moves with an increase of 4 %. While in 2006 the number of passengers was 1 937 642, this year it were 2 024 142 passengers, that have passed through the airport's gates. Rather strong month of the December, with an increase by 19 % when compared with the December 2006, and that in all types of transport including the international scheduled air transport, is surely also one of the factors that have contributed to these numbers. The new airlines (flights) of two most significant air carriers at the M.R. Štefánika Airport have brought, in the second half of the year, the benefits – in the new flight timetable the air carrier SkyEurope Airlines has started to fly the airlines to Birmingham, Dublin and Cork in Ireland, as well as the consolidated flights to Prague and by the end of the year the air carrier Ryanair has enriched the map of destinations by Stockholm, Bremen in Germany and Bristol in the south-east region of the Great Britain.
After the period of previous boom, when the volume of transported passengers was growing by 30-40 percent year-to-year leaps, during the previous year the airport has stabilized its position and is preparing itself for a new wave of growth. "I do not consider the year-to-year growth of operating performance by 4 % for the sign of stagnation of the Bratislava Airport", says the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Executive Director of the company Letisko M.R. Štefánika – Airport Bratislava, a.s. (BTS) Mr. Karol Biermann. "However, the possibilities and the ways how to improve these results certainly do exist."
The operating performances of the last years were moving nearly at one quarter of the volume of today's data and the enormous boom was conditioned by substantial growth of air transport in the Slovak Republic and the possibility to fly from the domestic airport, where the individual air carriers have gradually established themselves. Exactly these carriers have created the volume of air transport practically nearly from zero to the value of over 2 million passengers in a year. Between others the year 2007 was influenced by several other factors – one of the most notable factors was the drop-out of the flights of the Slovak Airlines (Slovenské aerolínie) with the yearly volume of nearly 180 000 passengers (indication for the year 2006) as well as the shift in the economic and commercial policy of low-cost air carriers.
Compared to the year 2006, the highest percentage growth has experienced the domestic airline between the airports Bratislava and Košice. While in 2006 the number of passengers that have flown between the capital of the SR and the metropolis of East-Slovakia region was 115 560, in the last year it were 174 463 passengers. "The growth by more than 50 % is the proof of correct commercial strategy of airline operator to bring the passengers from cars, trains and buses to planes," says Mr. Juraj Mitka, the Director of Bratislava Airport's Operation Activities Department. "The proportion of the number of flights to the number of transported passengers indicates that compared to the previous years, the capacity of planes is very well utilized and this factor is very important particularly for low-cost air carriers". The most significant part of the transport at the Bratislava Airport, represented by the international transport, has experienced an increase of 1 % and the non-scheduled charter air transport to the holiday destinations has experienced even an increase by 20 %. Compared to 2006, also the number of transit passengers that have passed through the Bratislava Airport has increased by 47 %.
Air carriers and destinations
In the year 2007, the most significant low-cost air carrier, the airline operator SkyEurope, transported from the Bratislava Airport 868 977 passengers. Compared to 2006 the numbers of transported passengers from Bratislava for 2007 are higher for the airline operator Ryanair – the number of 582 260 passengers represents an increase by 29 %. The air carrier Air Slovakia, which took over the majority of non-scheduled international flights after the air carrier Slovak Airlines (Slovenské Aerolínie), can also write-up an increase of more than 300 % - that is because this air carrier transported more than 299 000 passengers, mostly people going for holidays to charter destinations. Other air carrier, the Czech Airlines (České Aerolínie), operating the airline to Prague, transported for the period of twelve months more than 94 000 passengers and the German airline operator Lufthansa transported in the previous year from the Bratislava Airport 58 464 passengers (a 2% increase).
Among the most popular destinations of the Bratislava Airport still belongs London – the airlines to the metropolis of the Great Britain operate two most significant airline operators, the SkyEurope Airlines as well as the Ryanair, and the last year they transported nearly 358 000 passengers on these lines. The second position belongs to domestic airline – the flight to Košice, which was used by nearly 175 000 passengers and the third in the order is the Bergamo airport in Milan, Italy. The fourth position belongs to the airline connection to Dublin in Ireland and the fifth most often flown destination of the Bratislava Airport is the scheduled flight to Prague, the capital of the Czech republic.