The continuation of the recovery

In 2023, Genève Aéroport welcomed 16,482,713* passengers, i.e. 17.02 % more than in 2022 (14,085,280 passengers). Although higher than expected before the financial year, this increased attendance still remains 8.05 % below the record year of 2019, the year before the pandemic. As a reminder, in 2019, Genève Aéroport welcomed 17,920,625 passengers.

With 172,841 movements, total traffic (Airline, Charter, commercial and non-commercial aviation) is up 5.93 % compared to 2022. The total number of takeoffs and landings still remains 7.10 % lower than the 2019 level (186,043 movements).

In 2023, Air freight activity was marked by a slowdown in Swiss and global economic growth. With 66,358 tonnes processed, the annual tonnage is down 5.76 % compared to 2022.

Overall traffic result

*The total number of passengers has been slightly corrected following communication from an airline concerning the publication of the press release of 16 January 2024.

Evolution of the number of passengers per month

All types of traffic

Evolution of the number of passengers by movement

Scheduled an charter, passengers only.

Evolution of the number of passengers and movements

Aircraft movements: only commercial traffic (1985: index 100 points)

A fully restored long-haul network

With the return in February 2023 of Air China which is celebrating ten years of presence in Geneva, the airport has regained all of the pre-Covid long-haul services with the addition of certain destinations and increased frequencies. Regarding transatlantic routes, the offer expanded with the arrival of Delta Air Lines which provides a daily connection with New York JFK for the summer season, while United celebrated twenty years of presence in Geneva.

After an interruption of several years, Air Mauritius has resumed, with two flights per week, a direct connection for an extended winter season. In addition, Ethiopian Airlines continued to increase its frequencies from Geneva to its hub in Addis Ababa.

Although geopolitical conflicts continued to hamper movements in the European air space and maintained the absence of connections to Moscow and Kiev, Genève Aéroport’s service increased from 146 destinations in 2022 to 148 destinations in 2023. Some destinations were abandoned and new cities have been added to the network offered to Genève Aéroport clients: La Coruña, Venice, Chania, Lanzarote, Funchal, London Southend and Rabat for easyJet, Hamburg and Vienna for SWISS or even Malta for Air Malta. Regarding the number of airlines operating to and from Geneva, it stood at 54 in 2023 compared to 52 in 2022.

easyJet remains the leading airline with 46.4 % of the 2023 market. For its part, SWISS reached a market share of 12.2 % and British Airways 4.9 %, followed by, Air France (3.8 %), Iberia (2.9 %), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (2.2 %), TAP Portugal (2.1 %), Emirates (2.0 %), Turkish Airlines (1.9 %) and Lufthansa (1.6 %).

MARKET SHARES BY AIRLINE

Scheduled traffic

Scheduled traffic par airline

In the list of most visited cities, London, Paris, Porto, Lisbon and Amsterdam retain the top five places as  in the previous year. Barcelona, which had slipped to seventh position in 2022, moves back in front of Madrid. The first non-European destination in 2023 is Dubai, which is in 14th place ahead of New York.

In 2023, the share of passenger traffic to and from a non-European destination stands at 13.08 % (10.92 % in 2022).

Top 20 destinations by city

Scheduled traffic

Scheduled traffic by region and by country

LONG-HAUL DESTINATIONS AND TRAIN JOURNEYS

High load factor

In 2023, several lines and airlines experienced very high load factors, particularly in North America and the Middle East. This performance is confirmed through the indicator of average number of passengers per flight. With 128 passengers per scheduled and charter flight movement in 2023, this level is significantly above 2022 (122 passengers) and even 2019 (124 passengers).

Strong commitment to reducing night flights and noise pollution

For several years, through financial incentives, Genève Aéroport has encouraged airlines to favour the latest generation aircraft which contribute to limiting noise emissions. These less noisy and less kerosene-intensive aircraft represented, in 2023, 32.53 % of scheduled and charter flight movements.

The progress is remarkable and highlights that these strong initiatives have concrete results. In 2021, this share was 22.25 % and 24.95 % in 2022. The two best classes, 4 and 5, represent a combined total of 90.98 % of movements in 2023.

Genève Aéroport’s efforts to reduce noise-related nuisances, particularly at night, is important. Numerous measures in consultation with airlines have already been deployed to reduce in particular the number of planned or unplanned flights after 22:00.

A new lever is in the preparation phase: the establishment of a quota system with progressive and highly-dissuasive taxes in the event of exceeding the quotas from January 2025. Thanks to this tool in the testing phase, some companies anticipated this quota system, on a voluntary basis, by modifying their flight schedules at the end of the day to avoid late take-offs.

Distribution by class of noise

Scheduled and charter, passengers only

New-generation aircraft movements since 2016

In 2023, movements between 22:00 and 06:00, all categories combined, including medical flights, totalled 9,618, i.e. 5.56 % of flights (5.68 % in 2022 and 5.39 % in 2019).

Although efforts will continue, the 2023 results are nevertheless very satisfactory given the numerous geopolitical, social (several strikes in Europe last year) and technical (congestion linked to work in several air traffic control centres) disruptions. The extension of the war in Ukraine still has a strong impact on air flows across Europe and leads to a significant overload of activities for some control centres, particularly in Germany.

Last year, the European aviation community, with the participation of Genève Aéroport, led a major initiative for the summer called « All Together Now » aimed at guaranteeing the operational success of the European network. Among the measures put in place, we note the strong and priority attention to the punctuality of flights during the first wave of the day and the mobilisation of staff and resources to meet demand.

Night movements vs. total movements

All traffic

Evolution of the share of night flights between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

All traffic

Four major traffic disruptions

In 2023, Genève Aéroport experienced some major crisis situations.

Chronologically, on 23 May, a group of around one hundred activists broke into three different places on the tarmac at the end of the morning. Despite the immediate intervention of security and police agents, they managed to infiltrate the exhibition area of EBACE 2023 – the major meeting of business aviation – and handcuff themselves or chain themselves to the aircraft on display. Traffic was interrupted for an hour.

On 30 June, a strike by part of Genève Aéroport staff following the decision of the Board of Directors to adopt a new salary policy lead to traffic being completely interrupted between 06 : 00 and 10 : 00 with a partial and gradual resumption of operations thereafter. A tripartite agreement (Board of Directors and management, unions and personnel commission) put an end to the social movement.

On 13 December at 17 : 55, a BeechJet plane crossing the runway got stuck in the runway safety zone. This incident paralysed Genève Aéroport traffic until 21 : 49. More than 80 flights were impacted. After a first unsuccessful attempt, the SSLIA managed to lift the plane with an airbag under the wing and clear the runway.

Finally, on 24 December, without interruption of traffic, a strike by Dnata staff from 04 : 00 to 12 : 00 took place. The disruptions were contained : some flight were delayed some cancelled and no baggage was sorted during the walkout.

Passenger satisfaction

Despite the incidents, passenger satisfaction reached a very good level. For the first time, outside the Covid period and since the start of this study in 2006, overall passenger satisfaction at Genève Aéroport has reached the « very good level » (4 on a scale of 1 to 5) to reach 4.01.

Under the watchful eye of the ACI (Airports Council International), the ASQ (Airport Service Quality) survey is conducted in more than 330 airports, allowing comparison and inspiration from the best-rated organisations. In Geneva, 2,015 people responded to the ten-minute questionnaire, chosen at random in each departure lounge, on a selection of destinations and airlines representative of overalltraffic at Genève Aéroport.

This good result is in particular due to a number of significant improvements such as a reduction in the average waiting time at security checks and an optimisation of the operation of the East Wing, which was very appreciated by passengers. The many other continuous improvements, such as changing some seats, cleanliness, courtesy of staff, etc., contributed to this high satisfaction rate.

The ASQ survey also provides information on the profile of airport passengers. Currently, we are seeing a gradual return of passenger types and travel behaviours that were disrupted during the Covid crisis. For example, the share of passengers coming to the airport by public transport (49 %) has almost regained the level it had before the crisis (51 %).

Slight drop in business aviation activity

Business aviation retains an important role due to its economic weight and the services it offers to meet the needs and expectations of its clients. So-called GA/BA aviation represented, in 2023, a quarter of aircraft movements. 30,147 movements were recorded for commercial business aviation (-5.67 % compared to 2022 and +14.01 % compared to 2019) and 14,742 movements for non-commercial traffic (-8.24 % compared to 2022 and -5.69 % compared to 2019).

Commercial business aviation mainly covers flights operated through private aviation companies (more than 25,000 movements last year), but also cargo flights, ambulance flights, etc. Non-commercial aviation mainly covers private and tourism flights, training flights, military flights, etc.

Renewal of assistance agent concessions and security contracts

In 2023, Genève Aéroport renewed the concessions for two important areas of airport activity. On 31 January, Genève Aéroport awarded new security service contracts to three companies – Protectas Aviation Security SA, Custodio SA and SPS Société Privée de Sécurité SA. These contracts will cover the period from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2028.

At Genève Aéroport, security services cover several missions. In addition to passenger security screening, the main tasks are surveillance, access control, queue management, preparation of passengers for inspection, screening inspection of personnel, supplies, vehicles and baggage cargo hold, car park surveillance, etc.

For the 2023-2028 period, the scope of the assigned mandates has been slightly modified compared to previous mandates. Apart from queue management, all tasks will be carried out by certified security agents, which was not the case before. 

On 25 April, at the end of the call for tenders procedure, Genève Aéroport awarded each of the two companies – Swissport International SA and Aviapartner SAS – a concession concerning the operation of ground handling services for scheduled and charter air traffic at the airport. These concessions were due to take effect on 1 November 2023 for a period of seven years.

Among the five candidates in competition, the company Dnata – today holder of one of the two concessions – appealed against the decision to the Federal Office of Civil Aviation. The legal procedure is ongoing.

At Genève Aéroport, ground handling services for scheduled and charter air traffic are responsible for various services. In addition to the handling of passengers, baggage and freight upon flight arrivals and departures, they are tasked with numerous services in contact with aircraft: towing, pushback, jetbridge operations, de-icing, loading and unloading of holds, emptying of toilets and drinking water supply, cabin cleaning, etc.

In 2023, Genève Aéroport’s sales teams launched the call for tenders process for assistance activities for people with reduced mobility (PRM), an essential service offered to passengers. In 2023, the number of services provided to date by GVAssistance reached 139,203, i.e. a daily average of 381. For this file, the decision will take place in the 1st quarter of 2024.

Another process put into action from the fourth quarter is the preparation of negotiations to set airport charges for the 2025-2027 period. The current charges came into force in 2021. The new charges are expected to take effect on 1 January 2025.

Access to authorised areas

In accordance with the requirements of the supervisory authority, a project to revise access control to authorised areas is in hand. It will be implemented during the year 2024.

Freight : deflection

Like most European airports, air freight activity was marked in 2023 by an unstable economic situation, the reorientation of flows in international trade due to geopolitical situations and the gradual shift of certain shipments for the benefit of maritime freight aimed at optimising transport costs in companies. 

The first half of 2023 saw a sharp contraction in the processing of goods at the freight hall followed by an improvement from the last months of the year thanks to the return of transfer traffic. In total, freight handled at Genève Aéroport totalled 66,358 tonnes, i.e. a decrease of 5.76 % compared to 2022. Export freight represented 50.9 % and import freight 49.1 % of all volumes.

By mode of transport, the share of air freight (47,734 tonnes) evolved positively compared to that of road freight, going from 68.7 % to 74.8 % of the total freight transported, reflecting a high level of the hold supply at Genève Aéroport.

The breakdown by activity segment, as in 2022, is down to freight left in the holds on flights with passengers (73.5 %), followed by freight generated by express mail companies (22.7 %) and postal freight (3.8%). The latter was particularly dynamic with growth of 23.6% for traffic amounting to 2,531 tonnes.

2023 saw the modernisation of the infrastructure of the freight hall with the gradual replacement of the ten existing lifts in the building serving the user community.

In addition, the past year allowed the finalisation of plans relating to the expansion of the space allocated to the Animal Centre necessary for the proper conduct of the activities of the veterinary service of the Confederation, so ensuring that Genève Aéroport maintains the status of Border Inspection Post (PIF).

Cargo and postal traffic results