London Heathrow Staves Off Rival Hubs as Istanbul Joins Top Rank - Bloomberg

London Heathrow defended its status as Europe’s busiest airport in 2012, a year when growth rates at major hubs slowed amid the debt crisis and booming cities such as Istanbul challenged more established centers like Madrid.
Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport attracted 61.6 million passengers last year for a 1.1 percent advance, barely more than capacity-limited Heathrow’s 0.9 percent gain to 69.9 million, while numbers at third-ranked Frankfurt rose 1.9 percent to 57.5 million. Istanbul reaped a 20 percent jump to 44.9 million.
Europe’s traditional hubs are struggling to add travelers as a sluggish economy hurts demand and rivals in the Persian Gulf grab a growing share of inter-continental transfer traffic. In 2011, Heathrow, the main base for British Airways (IAG), had increased its passenger tally 5.4 percent, with jumps of 4.8 percent at Charles de Gaulle and 6.5 percent at Frankfurt.
London Heathrow Staves Off Rival Hubs as Istanbul Joins Top Rank - Bloomberg