Europe’s Airports Council International (ACI EUROPE), in its recent report, has revealed the profound decrease in the number of arrivals in Europe, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, from data provided from over 500 airports in 46 countries.

The decline in the number of travelers from countries worldwide is a consequence of countries’ governments’ preventive measures such as travel restrictions, entry bans, and advice against non-essential travel, amid the upsurge in the number of COVID-19 cases in many countries, StudyinPoland.Info reports.

Based on ACI’s report, during the first two weeks of February, about 89 percent decrease has been marked in passenger traffic at European Union, European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom airports, compared to 2020 figures.

The sharpest decrease was noted in the airports of:

• the United Kingdom (92 percent decrease)
• Germany (90 percent decrease)
• Benelux countries (90 percent decrease)

“Airports in the rest of Europe have seen their passenger traffic show the beginnings of improvement, with a 60 percent hit in early January creeping up to 55 percent decline in the first two weeks of February,” the statement reads.

Passenger volumes in European airports decreased from 79 percent during last year to about 83 percent decrease as of mid-February.

A total of 182 million passengers were already lost, as of February 14, since the beginning of the year; among them, 157 million have been lost by the EU, UK, and EEA airports.

During last year, an ongoing decrease in air connectivity has been noted, which is also very important to help Europe’s economy recover from the damages caused by the Coronavirus pandemic situation.

ACI’s report highlights that air routes that have been lost within and from Europe continued to increase to 6,914 in February from 6,663 in January and a total of 6,001 in November last year.

Director-General of ACI EUROPE,  Olivier Jankovec, stressed that the recent ACI figures reveal that the travel and tourism sector is in agony.

He also said that as the vaccines against the COVID-19 continue to roll out in many countries, governments of the European Union and across Europe “must start planning for a progressive and coordinated restart of international travel in time for the Summer season.”

Last month, the European Tourism Manifesto Alliance, a group of over 60 public and private travel and tourism bodies, introduced a series of joint recommendations for the EU Member States to relaunch both sectors in Europe for summer 2021.