BERLIN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- A record number of 124.4 million passengers boarded flights from Germany's 24 largest commercial airports in 2019, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Tuesday.
"This is the 10th consecutive year" in which the number of passengers departing from German airports had increased, Destatis noted.
However, the increase by 1.5 percent was "considerably smaller" than in 2018 when passenger numbers were still growing at 4.2 percent, according to Destatis.
International destinations "confirmed the upward trend once again", Destatis noted. International flights grew by 2.3 percent and carried a total of 101.3 million passengers in 2019. Domestic flights on the other hand declined by 1.8 percent to 23.1 million passengers.
The "most important motivation" for Germans to go on holiday was the sunny weather, according to a spokesperson of the Research Association for Vacation and Travel (FUR). "Germans who want sunshine guarantee have to fly to their holiday destination," the spokesperson told Xinhua.
In Europe, flights to Turkey were growing above average at 10.4 percent to a total of 8.2 million passengers. As in the previous year, Spain was the most popular with 14.3 million passengers, although there was a 2.3 percent decline in passenger numbers.
Regarding long-distance flights, India, the United States and Canada showed the highest growth figures while the Dominican Republic recorded a large decline in passengers from German airports, according to Destatis.
Over the last 10 years, passenger numbers on international routes increased by more than 50 percent, while the numbers on domestic destinations declined 2.1 percent, according to Destatis.
