German airports record number of passengers

German airports registered a record number of passengers in 2011, with passengers arriving and departing through airports across Germany totaled 198.2 million, German Airport Association (ADV) said on Tuesday. Despite the figure was up by 5 percent over the previous year, it still fell short of the ADV's target of 200 million. "The airports in Germany are also not immune to the generally weaker economic development of the world, and particularly vulnerable to the so-called Aviation Tax which was introduced a year ago, as the negative impact of which become increasingly more obvious," ADV Chief Executive Ralph Beisel said. Despite the strong growth for the whole aviation market, two thirds of German airports, most of which are medium and small ones, saw numbers of passengers remaining unchanged or declining, according the ADV's statistics. German airlines and airports have long been complaining about the imposition of the so-called Aviation Tax, which was initiated since the beginning of 2011. Most airlines then transfer the additional costs into the ticket prices and pass overcharges onto the passengers eventually. For departures from German airports, the tax is a progressive one along with the distance, it ranges from 8 euros (10.4 U.S. dollars) due on the intra-European flights, to 25 euros for flights with a distance between 2500 and 6000 km, and further to 45 euros for flights that stretch over 6,000 km. (1 euro=1.3 U.S. dollars)