Air Passenger Traffic in Europe Hits All-Time Low, Data Shows

The Airports Council International Europe (ACI) has revealed that the air passenger traffic is experiencing a deep crisis as the sector continues to deteriorate due to the COVID-19 crisis.
In a press release published on April 21, ACI disclosed that the passenger traffic in the first quarter of 2021 dropped by -87.7 per cent throughout the European airport network compared to the same period pre-pandemic in 2019.
The sector marked a further decrease compared to the last quarter of 2020, losing a total of 395.5 million passengers, StudyinPoland.Info reports.
Europe has become a dualistic aviation market, with airports in the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland continuing to plunge into the crisis caused by the pandemic. On the other hand, data shows that other airports in Europe, led by Russia and Turkey, are managing the situation much better.
According to ACI, EU/EEA/Swiss and UK airports saw passenger traffic drooping from -85 per cent in January to -89 per cent only two months later, in March, with their first-quarter performance standing at -88 per cent.
The UK airports were particularly affected along with other countries that rely heavily on international traffic.
“If anything, these figures show not only that the crisis has not receded, but that things have actually gotten worse for airports since the beginning of the year – especially for those in the EU, EEA, Switzerland and the UK. Beyond rock bottom traffic and collapsed connectivity, there is no escape from the fact that the financial resilience of Europe’s airports is faltering by the day,” Director General of ACI Europe Olivier Jankovec said.
On the contrary, passenger traffic at airports in Russia, Turkey, and some other markets improved significantly from -59 per cent in January to -49 per cent in March.
Consequently, the top five European airports with the best performance in the first quarter of 2021 are the ones located in Russia and Turkey, as follows:
- Istanbul Airport (-64 per cent)
- Moscow Domodedovo (-18 per cent)
- Moscow Sheremetyevo (-60 per cent)
- Istanbul-Sabiha Gokcen (-48 per cent)
- Moscow-Vnukovo (-26 per cent)
Additionally, Paris CDG (-82 per cent), Madrid (-81 per cent), Frankfurt (-83 per cent), and Amsterdam-Schiphol (-87 per cent) still made it on the top ten group, while London-Heathrow (-91 per cent) did not.
Outstandingly, Sochi International Airport became the only airport in Europe to register a passenger traffic increase in the first quarter by +47 per cent.
ACI disclosed that the preliminary figures for April 2021 do not show any improvement in the sector. Thus, the traffic at airports of Europe was down by -80 per cent in the first ten days of April.
The sector’s current state also mirrors the collapse of air connectivity, with around 2000 other air routes lost since the beginning of the year, from 6,663 in January to 8,539 lost routes in April. Therefore, a full recovery of the sector is expected to happen only three to four years from now.
Earlier in March, ACI voiced its concern over the loss of 1.72 billion passengers across Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic and requested from the EU Commission to assure that airports can use the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility scheme for projects related to sustainability and digitalisation.