Corporación América Airports S.A. (NYSE:CAAP), («CAAP» or the «Company») the largest private sector airport perator in the world by number of airports, reported today preliminary year-over-year passenger traffic growth of 5.5% in February 2019.
Passenger Traffic, Cargo Volume and Aircraft Movements Highlights
Statistics | Feb’19 | Feb’18 | % Var. | YTD’19 | YTD’18 | % Var | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic Passengers (thousands) | 3,584 | 3,264 | 9.8 | % | 7,590 | 6,925 | 9.6 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
International Passengers (thousands) | 2,050 | 2,077 | -1.3 | % | 4,371 | 4,440 | -1.6 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transit Passengers (thousands) | 745 | 708 | 5.3 | % | 1,614 | 1,605 | 0.5 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Passengers (thousands) | 6,380 | 6,049 | 5.5 | % | 13,575 | 12,970 | 4.7 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cargo Volume (thousand tons) | 33.8 | 30.3 | 11.8 | % | 66.6 | 62.0 | 7.5 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Aircraft Movements (thousands) | 66.5 | 64.9 | 2.5 | % |
Passenger Traffic Overview
Total passenger traffic in February 2019 increased 5.5% YoY, primarily reflecting growth of 7.9% in Argentina, 2.8% in Brazil and 8.2% in Ecuador.
In Argentina, total passenger traffic increased 7.9% YoY, mainly driven by 17.2% growth in domestic passengers, benefiting from the launch of several new routes and addition to new airlines during 2018, together with a mix-shift to domestic from international travel by local passengers. This was partially offset by a decline of 5.4% in international passengers, reflecting continued challenging macro conditions. After a full year of operations, El Palomar Airport, our facility servicing low-cost flights located in Greater Buenos Aires, ranked 7th in terms of passenger traffic across our network.
Also driven by low-cost Airlines Norwegian and Flybondi, our Mendoza, Córdoba and Iguazú airports posted increases in domestic traffic of 39.7%, 23.9% and 27.2%, respectively in February.
In Italy, passenger traffic rose 5.2%, driven by an increase of 5.2% in Pisa Airport mainly related to the addition of frequencies by Ryanair and flights by Pobeda to Moscow. In Florence Airport, passenger traffic increased 5.3%, due to easier comps as last year traffic was impacted by Air France pilots’ strike, together with the good performance of TAP’s connection to Lisbon and the additional flights to Madrid by Iberia.
In Brazil, passenger traffic at Brasilia airport increased 3.5%, mainly due to an increase of 2.1% in domestic traffic, offset by a decline in international traffic mainly as a result of the change in methodology in traffic count by ANAC. Based on the prior methodology, international traffic would have increased 32.5% YoY at this airport. Domestic traffic growth remained impacted by a reduction in less profitable routes and frequencies by LATAM Airlines, and a decline of approximately 20% in seat supply at Avianca Brasil. By contrast, Gol continues with its plan to expand operations at Brasilia Airport, with new domestic flights to be launched during the first half of the year. International traffic at Brasilia Airport declined 10.2% impacted by the new methodology in traffic count applied since June 2018 as discussed above. This more than offset traffic growth resulting from the continued good performance of routes to Miami and Orlando opened by Gol Airlines in November and the addition of a new direct flight to Buenos Aires during December.
In Ecuador, passenger traffic increased 8.2%, with international passenger traffic at Guayaquil Airport up 11.8%, mainly attributed to the continued good performance of the Spirit Airlines flight to Fort Lauderdale introduced in March 2018 and the increase in frequencies by COPA Airlines.
Cargo Volume and Aircraft Movements
Cargo volume increased 11.8% in February 2019 mainly as a result a 98.5% increase in Brazil, mainly related to an increase in exports, offset by a decline of 7.9% in Argentina, related to the continued challenging macroeconomic conditions.
Aircraft movements increased 2.5% in February 2019, mainly as a result of increases of 4.5% in Argentina and 24.0% in Ecuador, partially offset by a 6.4% decline in Brazil…