Botswana airports registered an increase in aircraft movements in the second half of 2014, an improvement from the first period of the year, Statistics Botswana new data has shown.
The Transport and Infrastructure Statistics Brief Q2, 2014 revealed that there were gains in this period to reverse the general declines on the first quarter of the year. “Compared to the preceding quarter, Q1 2014, which recorded a general decline in aircraft movements for all the airports, Q2 2014, all the airports recorded an increase in aircraft movements,” said the statistics body.
It stated that major gainers were Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA) in Gaborone, which recorded an increase of 7.6 percent and Ghanzi with an increase of 44.4 percent. The Gaborone airport handled mostly international traffic at 72.5 percent, while the other airports handled mostly domestic traffic, Maun (93.8 percent), Francistown (62.8 percent) and Kasane (78.4 percent) in Q2 2014, Gaborone.
SSKIA also recorded the highest number of passenger movements, contributing 50.9 percent of all the total air passenger movements. However, this was a decrease of 5.5 percent compared to its contribution in the previous quarter, Q1 2014.
“When compared to the same quarter in the previous year, Gaborone airport recorded a decrease of 0.6 percent in passenger movements. Ghanzi airport also recorded a decline of 11.0 percent, within the referenced period. When compared to the same quarter of the previous year, Ghanzi airport recorded a 42.0 percent drop in passenger movements,” said the statistics body.
On a year-on-year comparison, from Q2 2013, Statistics Botswana noted that Maun and Kasane airports recorded an increase in aircraft movements of 5.6 percent and 2.7 percent respectively.
In Q2 2014, Gaborone, Francistown, Selebi-Phikwe and Ghanzi airports recorded decreases in aircraft movements of 0.9, 2.8, 11.3 and 14.5 percent respectively.
According to Statistics Botswana, in Q2 2014, some 195,017 passenger movements were recorded, which was a total increase of 18.9 percent in passenger movements from the 164,024 passengers recorded in Q1 2014.
Out of the movements realised in Q2 2014, 55.2 percent of them were international with the remaining 44.8 percent domestic passenger movements. Compared to the same quarter in 2013, Q2 2014, international movements recorded an increase of 7.1 percent while domestic movements decreased by 4.3 percent.
On the other hand, the scheduled passenger movements contributed 75.0 percent of the total movements while non-scheduled and private contributed 23.9 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.
All the flight types recorded an increase in air passenger movements when compared to the previous quarter, Q1 2014; non-scheduled movements increased by 48.8 percent, scheduled movements increased by 12.0 percent and private movements increased by 2.7 percent.
“When compared to Q2 2013, all the flight types recorded an increase in air passenger movements. Scheduled movements went up by 0.9 percent, non-scheduled increased by 3.2 percent and private movements recorded an increase of 42.9 percent.”
In the same period, a total of 22,735 aircraft movements were recorded for Q2 2014, of which 77.9 percent were domestic movements.
In the period under review, domestic aircraft movements increased by 42.9 percent whereas international aircraft movements increased by 20.1 percent when compared to the previous quarter, Q1 2014.
“There was a total increase of 37.1 percent in aircraft movements in Q2 2014, from 16,580 aircraft movements in Q1 2014. When annualising total figures, Q2 2014 increased by 3.4 percent when compared to Q2 2013,” Statistics Botswana noted.
In this quarter, the bulk of aircraft movements were domestic, making 77.9 percent, while international aircraft movements only accounted for 22.1 percent of total movements.
In the scheduled arrivals 73.7 percent of those movements were international; similarly with scheduled departures, international movements constituted 74.3 percent. The trend is adverse in the non-scheduled arrivals and departures, where the bulk of the movements were domestic.
