ROME -- According to fresh data just released by ISTAT, the growth of the air traffic to and from Italian airports consolidated in 2015 confirmed that the number of passengers increased by 4.4%, freight and mail by 3.1% and aircrafts' commercial movements by 0.6% on data from the previous year.

 The passengers increase concerned only scheduled flights and, particularly, it concerned international flights, which grew more (7.7%) than the national (1.8%) flights.

 Passengers on charter flights decreased significantly, with a decrease for both domestic (-28.3%) and international flights (-20.7%).

 Airports recording the greatest increases of passengers in comparison to the preceding year were: Bergamo (1.6 million more), Roma Ciampino (813 thousand more) and Perugia (76 thousand passengers more). Rimini airport (310 thousand less) and Cuneo (109 thousand less) are the airports with the most consistent decreases.

 During 2010-2015, embarked and disembarked passengers in Italian airports used national vectors less and less, recording a decrease from 42.1% to 27.8%.

 Passengers arriving and departing on low cost flights increased by 51.2% (48.5% in 2014).

 As in 2014, Italy was again the fifth country for total passengers carried (9.3%) within the European Union, after the United Kingdom (16.8%), Germany (14%), Spain (12.6%) and France (10.2%).

 The increase of freight and mail transport, equal to 3.1%, was only due to the increase of international transport (+5.7%), while the domestic decreased (-20.5%).

 Freight transport increased with South-America (+15.0%), European countries outside of the UE (+10.2%), Central America (+7.4%), EU countries (+6.3%) and Asia (+5.7%), while it decreased with Africa (-5.4%).

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