Frankfurt and Copenhagen airports have both reported strong growth in passengers numbers during the first month of 2012, thanks to improved weather conditions and increased transfer traffic.
 

In January, Frankfurt Airport handled 4.1 million passengers – a 5.5% traffic jump year-on-year – while Copenhagen Airport set a monthly passenger record of 1.6 million passengers – up 5.3% compared with the same time last year.
 

According to Fraport – the operator of Frankfurt Airport – the reason for this growth was primarily down to better winter weather this year, and most notably the absence of snow.
 

It added that January’s rise in passenger numbers was also down to increased capacity and operational flexibility created by the gateway’s new Runway Northwest which was opened in October 2011.
 

However, cargo at Frankfurt Airport dropped by 16.8% during the month to 141,340 tonnes year-on-year. 
 

The airport said that this was down to both the continued uncertainty in the global economy as well as the controversial night-time flight curfew imposed at the beginning of Frankfurt’s Winter Timetable 2011/2012.
 

Elsewhere, Fraport’s five majority-owned airports – Antalya, Frankfurt, Burgas, Lima, Varna – handled a total of 5.7 million passengers in January, an increase of 6.6% compared with a year earlier.
 

Peru’s Lima Airport exceeded the one million passenger mark in January 2012, while Antalya Airport on the Turkish Riviera recorded nearly 600,000 passengers, representing double-digit growth of 14.5% year-on-year.
 

On the Bulgaria Black Sea coast, traffic surged at Burgas Airport by more than 150% to some 21,000 passengers, thanks to the diversion of traffic from nearby Varna Airport which is temporarily closed from October 15, 2011, to February 28, 2012.
 

Meanwhile, Copenhagen Airport’s monthly passenger record in January at almost 1.6 million passengers was an increase was 5.3% year-on-year, thanks mainly to a significant growth in transfer traffic, which was up by as much as 11.8%.
 

Carsten Nørland, VP of sales and marketing at Copenhagen Airport, said: “Transfer passengers contribute to the sustainability of our intercontinental route network, and the growth in transfer traffic is therefore important for our position as a hub.”