Almost 1.59 million passengers were transported through Bratislava's Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport (BTS) in 2011, a fall of 4.8 percent year-on-year, BTS head Maroš Jančula said at a press conference on January 25, as reported by the TASR newswire, adding that despite the drop in the number of passengers, the airport’s income went up by 5 percent due to cuts in operating costs and revenues from other aviation activities growing by 8.2 percent to almost €20 million.
"This means that we can basically assess last year as a successful one from the perspective of the management as well as the company as such," Jančula stated, as quoted by TASR.
Regular routes to 32 destinations provided by seven airlines were used by 1.12 million passengers. The largest number of travellers flew with Ryanair, about 1 million, with the most popular destinations being London, Milan and Dublin. Charter flights reported 458,000 passengers.
"There was a 7-percent increase during the four holiday months. This is a signal that Slovaks do fly," said BTS trade director Tomáš Kika, adding that this means of transport was offered by 12 carriers to 36 destinations. Most of the summer holiday-makers (over 316,000) were transported by Travel Service. Antalya in Turkey was the most popular destination, replacing Egypt's Hurghada.
BTS also reported a record volume of goods transported last year, with year-on-year growth of 16 percent.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
