The European Regions Airline Association predicted that 2016 results for its 53 airline members will prove to be “better than expected”. Monday, it also forecast “big changes” for the sector in the coming year or so, driven in part by the uncertain Brexit process through which the UK is set to leave the EU. The association’s president, Boet Kreiken said, “Europe is in the doldrums; there is lots of complexity and upcoming elections [in various countries]. The effectiveness of the EU institutions is being tested and we are feeling it.” Kreiken explained that day-to-day ERA airlines are facing “airport capacity issues, lack of physical space to manoeuvre, and too many ATC delays.” More broadly they face continued threats from LCCs as well as uncertainty with the general economic environment and currency exchange issues. <br/>
general
A new review of airport capacity will look at the potential of establishing a third, privately-operated, terminal at Dublin Airport, minister for Transport Shane Ross said. The minister said a forthcoming review which will examine the longer-term capacity needs of the 3 State airports “will include an option for a third, independent terminal at Dublin airport”. He said the review would get underway within weeks. Meanwhile, DAA CE Kevin Toland said the idea of an independent terminal was a theoretical model, which was costly and inflexible. He said it had been tried and had failed, and had been reversed in 2 major airports in Europe and North America. Toland said the delivery of the second new runway and other infrastructure to support growth at Dublin airport should be a priority as a third terminal was a long way down the line. <br/>
LCCs have continued to take a bigger slice of overall airline traffic through Thailand, a trend that is set to continue unabated. The latest figures show that LCCs last year accounted for 44.9% of all passengers transiting through the 6 main airports operated by AoT, compared with 42% in 2015. Moving in tandem were aircraft movements by no-frills carriers through airports such as Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, which represented 45.3% of the total in 2016, edging up from 43.7% in the previous year. Last year saw LCCs account for 54.7m out of the 122m passengers that moved through AOT-operated airports, which handle the bulk of air traffic through Thailand. In contrast, budget airlines in 2015 handled 46.1m passengers out of the 110m total. LCC passenger traffic volume rose 23.9% last year. <br/>