European airline traffic recovered to 88 per cent of pre-Covid levels for the three months from July to September, but the continent’s major hubs continue to lag behind regional airports
Figures from airports body ACI Europe shows that surging international airline traffic drove a 61 per cent rise in passengers during the third quarter compared with the same period in 2021.
ACI Europe’s report also showed how the recovery has continued its momentum during 2022 – traffic was down by 39 per cent in the first quarter of the year compared with 2019; this improved to 17 per cent down in Q2 and only 12 per cent lower in Q3.
The update noted that leisure and VFR (visiting friends and relatives) had continued to largely fuel the rebound in air traffic this summer, with airports in top holiday destinations such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy performing better than the European average.
But the continent’s largest aviation markets continue to recover at a slower pace: France was 14 per cent lower than 2019, while the UK and Germany remained 18 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.
“The exposure of these markets to intercontinental traffic (especially to Asia) as well as airport capacity restrictions at selected hubs in the UK and Germany acted as recovery‑limiting factors,” said ACI Europe in its report.
Airports in Finland, Czech Republic, Latvia and Bulgaria were even further behind in their recoveries “in large part due to the impact of the war in Ukraine and related sanctions against Russia and Belarus”.
Istanbul was the best performing major hub with passenger volumes exceeding 2019 levels by 3 per cent during the quarter.
London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle both saw huge increases compared to summer 2021 traffic, but volumes still remained 18 per cent and 20 per cent lower respectively than pre-Covid levels.
Capacity restrictions also meant that both Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt airports saw passenger numbers down by one-fifth on 2019.
Many regional and smaller airports around Europe nearly recovered to pre-pandemic traffic levels in the third quarter
“This again reflected leisure and intra-European driven recovery dynamics along with ultra-low cost carriers’ surge in capacity,” added ACI Europe.
Source: Business Travel News Europe
