ANA Airports expected a 4% rise in travellers next year, building on the 32 million who passed through Portugal’s 10 airports in 2013. The French-owned airport operator’s top man in Portugal, Jorge Ponce de Leon, said this is a conservative estimate.
The 2013 traffic figure was hugely encouraging at 32 million passengers, 1.52 million more than the year before.
Ponce de Leon, the president of the company, said that "in January 2014 the growth was 8.8% up in the first 25 days of the year compared to 2013."
Lisbon Airport increased its throughput of passengers by 4.6% to 16 million passengers from the 37 airlines flying to the airport last year.
Oporto was 5.3% up with its 15 scheduled airlines but ahead was Faro which grew 5.4% to a total of 5.9 million passengers last year from 27 different airlines.
Despite the fall in traffic of Portuguese national travelling abroad, this was "more than offset by the visitors who entered the country. This increase is twice the average of the European Union airports, therefore tourism in Portugal is able to grow at rates exceeding 4%."
"The numbers leave us very happy because they reflect the results of the new regulatory model," stated Jorge Ponce Leon referring to a set of new fees to operators for using the French-run airports.
The president of ANA of course was immune to criticism of this new fee structure, "Lisbon is 23% below the group average," said Ponce de Leon, adding that "the rates enable the investments necessary to create additional capacity."
Airport charges will suffer a further increase from April 1st and rose late in 2013 causing disgruntlement among hard pressed operators.
ANA has witnessed a "recapture of the Scandinavian market," while the French and German markets have had "tremendous growth."
If ANA is able to increase its fees, to the cheery delight of its shareholders, while at the same time preside over a growth in passenger number then this formula may keep both parties happy.
