Bratislava Airport passenger numbers forecast for 13% rise

Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport in Bratislava should process around 1.8 million passengers by the end of this year, said its general director Ivan Trhlík on Tuesday. Compared to 2015, the figure should rise by around 13 percent. However, Trhlík admits that this year's summer holiday season recorded a drop of approximately 150,000 passengers. "People were afraid of travelling; the geopolitical situation wasn't conducive to this kind of travel," Trhlík told TASR. Previous years saw as many as 600,000 people taking holidays via the airport. Trhlík expects that the number of passengers will continue to increase in 2017 as well. "We anticipate more double-digit growth," he added. The Bratislava airport processed 1.56 million passengers in 2015, which was an increase of 15.4 percent compared to 2014. Latest estimates reveal that 1.55 million passengers have already been processed over the first ten months of 2016.