OREANDA-NEWS. July 22, 2013. Munich Airport set a new record in the first six months of 2013. From January to June, more than 18.6 million passengers arrived or departed from Munich Airport – more than in any previous six-month period in its history.

"The 0.3 percent rise compared with last year is quite moderate, but when we look at the continuing economic difficulties in many European countries and the current turbulence in the airline industry, I think it's remarkable that passenger demand continues to increase," said Dr. Michael Kerkloh, the President and CEO of Munich Airport, at the Munich Press Club today. The number of take-offs and landings was somewhat lower than the previous year's figure, at about 190,000. However, the average load factor of aircraft in Munich was up by 0.8 percentage points in the first half of the year to a new record level of 74 percent.

The growth in passenger traffic in Munich in the first six months mainly resulted from gains in European traffic: Services between Munich and continental destinations were used by more than 11 million passengers. This represents a year-on-year gain of over 2 percent. With some 2.8 million passengers, the intercontinental segment showed slight year-on-year increase. By contrast, traffic within Germany was down by approximately 4 percent to 4.6 million passengers. Traffic growth had to struggle against negative effects, especially in the first quarter, due to the harsh winter and numerous strikes, which caused more than twice as many cancelled flights as in the first half of 2012.

In the airfreight segment, Munich Airport fell just short of the previous year's results. The total of 134,000 tons of flown airfreight represented a 2 percent decrease as compared with 2012.