Airport World - Staff Reporter
Opening ACI EUROPE’s Annual Congress and General Assembly in front of 300 delegates in Rome, director general, Olivier Jankovec, described an industry with a clear vision for its future societal and economic role – but fighting for the financial stability to get there.
Continued and systemic financial weakness
He noted that Europe’s airports are still reeling from the unprecedented revenue collapse caused by the pandemic, which resulted in historic losses reaching cumulatively over €20 billion over the past two years – a seismic economic shock to any industry.
With governments having mostly focused their financial support on airlines and cost cutting opportunities all but exhausted, European airports had no other option than to pile on debt – resulting in total airport debt and liabilities having increased by a massive €60 billion compared to pre-pandemic.
