European airport trade association ACI Europe has released its traffic figures for 2020, showing a total loss of 1.72 billion passengers compared to the previous year.
This equates to a drop in traffic of 70.4 per cent, and means that passenger traffic in the region was back to 1995 levels.
ACI said that EU airports were harder hit than those in the non-EU bloc, “mainly due to the size and relative resilience of domestic markets primarily in Russia but also Turkey, combined with less stringent lockdowns and travel restrictions compared to the EU market”.
The association also said that traffic at Europe’s top five hubs was “unrecognisable” last year, with Frankfurt airport posting a traffic decrease of 73.4 per cent, followed by London Heathrow (-72.7 per cent), Amsterdam Schiphol (-70.9 per cent), Paris CDG (-70.8 per cent), and Istanbul (-59.6 per cent).
By the fourth quarter of 2020 Istanbul airport had become the busiest European airport, followed by the city’s Sabiha Gocken, Moscow Sheremetyevo, Moscow Domodedovo and Moscow Vnukovo.
“With just 728 million passengers in 2020 compared to 2.4 billion passengers in the previous year, Europe’s airports were back to their traffic levels of 1995,” said Director General Olivier Jankovec.
“No industry can on its own withstand such a shock. While some States have taken steps to financially support their airports, only €2.2 billion has so far been earmarked for that purpose in Europe. This is less than 8 per cent of the revenues airports lost last year.”
“With further decreases in traffic over the past weeks and no recovery in sight, more needs to be done. Helping out airports is essential to rebuild air connectivity and effectively support local and regional communities and tourism.
“It is also critical to restore airports’ investment capabilities for the future. Without more financial support, investments in decarbonisation, digitalisation and SESAR are at risk.”
Heathrow airport this week published its latest traffic figures, showing a slump of nearly 90 per cent in passenger numbers during January.
