The 27 largest airports in Germany handled 47.7 million passengers in the first half of the year, national statisticians announced on Thursday. That's 1.0 million more than in the same period of 2011, marking a 2.1-percent increase year-on-year.

Passenger numbers on flights abroad increased by 3.4 percent to a total of 35.9 million people, the National Statistics Office (Destatis) reported. Intercontinental traffic recorded the strongest rise, with 6.8 percent more passengers registered at German airports between January and June.

The number of people bound for the African continent went up by 18.1 percent year-on-year.

Inner-German volumes a concern

Among the destinations in Asia, The United Arab Emirates stood out by logging a 24.4-percent increase in passengers starting out from German airports. It thus toppled China from the top Asian destination spot.

Passenger numbers to European locations outside of Germany increased by 2.4 percent. Spain once again proved the most frequented destination on the continent, with roughly five million people flying there from airports across Germany.

By contrast, inner-German passenger numbers dropped to 11.7 million in the first half of the year, marking a 1.7-percent dip.

hg/slk (dapd, dpa)