Airport queues make it hard to mistake the start of the holiday season. The number of passengers this summer is expected to reach, if not exceed, pre-crisis levels. And the air traffic keeps on growing.
“In the next 10 years it will double. It means also that in the next 10-20 years, we will have a problem with the skies—we will have not enough space to fly,” says Margus Rahuoja, Senior Adviser to the European Commissioner for Transport.
Air traffic volume in Eastern Europe is growing fastest. However, Finland is also striding ahead: since the beginning of the year, air traffic there has increased by 10 percent, which is above the European average.
In the coming years, most growth is expected at small airports.
"People, whether they have to go via Helsinki or Copenhagen or Frankfurt—if people can avoid a hub, they will, and if they can get some direct service to some interesting destinations either for business or tourism purposes, they are happy to do that,” notes David Huttner, Senior Vice President at aviation consultants Nyras Capital.
In Finland, airports at Tampere, Turku and Lappeenranta have seen particular increases in the number of flights, driven by budget airlines.
However, the major airports continue to dominate. The summer rush of passengers will do nothing to clear up congestion. Since the start of year, a quarter of European flights were delayed by over 15 minutes.