ACI Europe
ACI Europe has published its latest research showing passenger traffic returning to rock bottom levels and recovery forecasts downgraded. Passenger traffic in Q1 slumped by -81.7% across the European airport network, compared to the same period pre-pandemic (Q1 2019). This marked a further decrease from the previous quarter (Q4 2020 at -79.2%), resulting in the loss of 395.5 million passengers. EU/EEA/Swiss and UK airports saw passenger traffic decreasing from -85% in January to -89% in March, with their Q1 performance standing at -88%. This reflected their countries bracing with a third wave of COVID-19 infections, with severe travel restrictions and bans as well as domestic lockdowns.
UK airports were especially affected, along with those in countries relying exclusively on international traffic - many of them left with less than 5% of their pre-pandemic passenger traffic levels.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE, said “If anything, these figures show not only that the crisis has not receded, but that things have actually got worse for airports since the beginning of the year – especially for those in the EU, EEA, Switzerland and the UK...read here
