Record year for Dortmund Airport

“We did not just achieve our goal of welcoming 2.5 million passengers to our airport in 2019, we significantly exceeded it. We can be very satisfied with those figures because the increase is not only far above the growth in the industry, but it also makes us the leader in passenger development for the second time in a row after 2018”, says airport chief Udo Mager, commenting on Dortmund Airport’s passenger numbers for of 2019. A total of 2,719,563 passengers used the airport – 19.1 percent more than in 2018, which already ended with an increase of 14.2 percent. That means the airport set a new passenger record in 2019: The previous peak of a good 2.33 million passengers from 2008 was already beat in early November. With its disproportionate growth, Dortmund Airport also made the leap into the top 10 largest airports in Germany.

Katowice and London are the most popular destinations from Dortmund Airport again in 2019. Mallorca is in third place. The connections to the three destinations alone are used by around 700,000 passengers. The cities of Munich, Bucharest, Sofia and Vienna were also popular in 2019. “The ranking shows how broad the spectrum of travel reasons is for our passengers. Katowice is used by business people as well as people who travel for family and culture. Mallorca remains particularly popular with tourists”, says Guido Miletic, Head of Marketing & Sales at Dortmund Airport.

With Palanga in Lithuania, Ohrid in North Macedonia and frequency increases to popular destinations such as Masuria, Vienna and Chisinau, the airline Wizz Air has further expanded its involvement at Dortmund Airport 2019. In total, the Hungarian airline was used by around 1.88 million passengers, 29.1 percent more than in 2018. But Ryanair and Easyjet also grew at the Dortmund location and carried 12.6 and 5.5 percent more guests in 2019.

“2019 was the busiest year in the history of Dortmund Airport. If we can maintain this result in 2020, it would be a great success for us. Against the background of the wave of consolidation in the European aviation industry, the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max, the increase in the air traffic tax and the climate debate, the development of air traffic is characterised by uncertainties. Nonetheless, we are optimistic about the new year”, says Mager, “because beyond all the necessary contributions from air traffic to climate protection, mobility is a basic prerequisite for economic prosperity and thus for financing the ‘green deal’ with investments to tackle climate change in Germany and Europe”. Dortmund Airport has every reason to be optimistic: Ryanair has already announced that it will operate the Dortmund - Vienna route daily with one of its subsidiaries starting with the summer flight schedule. “We can also assume that the increase in passenger numbers in 2019 will also have an adequate impact on the annual and operating results. The preliminary annual result is expected to be determined in the course of the audit at the end of March 2020”, says Mager.