By Fotis Fotinos
In the most official way, the dynamics of Greek airports and tourism is established.
According to the June statistics published by ACI Europe, only airports in Greece (+1.8%) were able to register an increase in passenger traffic compared to 2019 among EU member airports.
It was followed by the airports of Luxembourg (0%), Portugal (-2.9%), Lithuania (-7.5%) and Norway (-9.9%).
Overall, in June, passenger traffic across the European airport network saw a further improvement, with the month closing at -17.4% on pre-pandemic levels (June 2019).
As ACI Europe reports, “this is the strongest monthly performance since the last pre-pandemic report in February 2020”.
Among the EU’s largest markets, airports in Spain (-10.8%) and Italy (-12.7%) performed best, followed by airports in France (-17.6%), the UK (-19.2%) and Germany (-27%).
At the other end of the spectrum, airports in Slovenia (-45.7%), Finland (-36.8%), Bulgaria (-34.1%), the Czech Republic (-33.3%) and Latvia (-28%) have struggled to recover, mainly due to the impact of the war in Ukraine and related international sanctions on Russia.
In the rest of Europe, the best results in June came from airports in the markets of Albania (+59.3%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (+29.9%), Kosovo (+24.8%), Armenia (+16.7%) and Kazakhstan (+13.1%), which far exceeded pre-pandemic levels (2019).
According to ACI Europe, airports in Serbia (-8.7%) came close to full recovery, followed by those in Turkey (-12.4%).
Accordingly, airports in Ukraine have lost all passenger traffic (-100%), with international sanctions affecting the performance of airports in Russia (-27%) and Belarus (-62.1%), as well as those in Montenegro (-60.9%), Georgia (-32.5%) and Moldova (-28.6%).
The performance of the first semester
Passenger traffic at ACI Europe’s European airport network increased by 247% in the first half of 2022, compared to the same period last year.
The increase is mainly due to international traffic (+381.2%) and not to domestic traffic (+88.5%).
The increase was more pronounced in the second quarter (+245.9%), following the relaxation, since March, of restrictions related to Omicron.
Airports in the EU and UK market saw by far the biggest “jump” in passenger traffic in the 1st half, with +348.9%, as a result of which passenger volume increased to 635 million, up from 140 million compared to last year.
For example, airports in Ireland (+1125%), United Kingdom (+833%), Slovakia (+842.2%), Hungary (+784.8%) and Denmark (+611.8%) ) marked a large increase compared to the first half of 2021.
On the other hand, there was a more modest, but still significant, increase in passenger traffic at airports in the rest of Europe, with +58.3%.
Olivier Jankovec, General Manager of ACI EUROPE commented: “These numbers speak for themselves.
If COVID-19 caused an unprecedented collapse in passenger traffic for Europe’s airports, the recovery we experienced this spring – especially in the EU market – is equally remarkable.
The fact that volumes across Europe still remained -28.3% below pre-pandemic levels for the first half of the year should not overshadow the sheer and unprecedented release of demand that has taken place since March.”
Source: Capital
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