Traffic levels still on the up but direct comparisons with 2010 difficult due to volcanic ash crisis
11 May 2011: Direct comparisons of the traffic numbers between April 2010 and April 2011 give an incorrect picture of the percentage increases between the two years because of the impact of the Icelandic volcanic ash crisis on the April 2010 traffic levels. Therefore, a more realistic percentage is achieved after compensating for the ash crisis. The results show an increase of circa 5% in the number of en route traffic movements in Irish controlled airspace and an increase of 4% in the number of North Atlantic Communications (NAC) flights.
Commercial terminal traffic figures were also distorted by the volcanic ash crisis. When taking the ash crisis into account, the April 2011 figures show a modest increase of 1.4% in commercial traffic at the three State airports; Dublin, Shannon and Cork.
Significantly, the overall trends remain upwards and the IAA welcomes the continued increase in traffic levels when compared to 2010 figures.
Meanwhile, results from IATA's quarterly survey, which was conducted in April, point to a significant deterioration in sentiment on the outlook for industry profitability in 2011. The bulk of respondents now expect the level of profitability to fall this year, driven largely by a significant increase in fuel costs. The extent of improvement in reported profitability also moderated during the first quarter of 2011. While 55% of respondents reported improved profitability during Q1 2011, almost a third reported poorer results. In March IATA revised down its forecast for 2011 industry profits to US$8.6 billion, a fall of almost half from the estimated US$16 billion profits achieved in 2010. (source IATA Economics)