EUROPE. ACI Europe air traffic data for February shows an improving picture after the recovery stalled in the previous two months due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant. Compared to pre-pandemic (2019) levels, passenger volumes across the European airport network were down -39% during the month, significantly bettering the -45.7% January result.
Airports in the EU+ market (EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland) saw passenger traffic recovering to -42.4% on 2019 levels in February, a marked improvement from the -51.1% recorded in the previous month. The performance gap between national markets remained significant, ACI noted, mostly due to the lack of alignment on both the extent and timing of the easing of Omicron-related restrictions, but also increasing competitive dynamics.
Airports in Portugal (-23.7%), Spain (-26.8%), Luxembourg (-27.7%), Croatia (-28.9%) and Ireland (-33.8%) were responsible for the best performances. On the other side of the coin, those in Slovenia (-63.9%), Germany (-59.6%), Sweden (-59%), Finland (-57.5%) and the Czech Republic (-55.4%) recorded the largest declines.
In the rest of Europe, passenger volumes were at -20.6% in February, up from -23.8% in January. Airports in Uzbekistan (+52.7%), Albania (+21.9%) and Kosovo (+13%) were stand out performers, while those in Russia had just completed their full recovery. Airports in Turkey (-27.3%) and Georgia (-29%) posted similar results, while those in Belarus were heavily impacted (-59.3%) by EU sanctions.
The Majors (top 5 European airports) saw passenger traffic at -43% in February, an improvement on the -48.5% reported in January. Istanbul (-26.6%) held the position as the busiest European airport, followed by Paris-CDG (-42.3%), Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez (-30.7%), London-Heathrow (-47.8%) and Amsterdam-Schiphol (-45.1%).
The permanence of severe travel restrictions on many intercontinental markets – in particular Asia – also weighed on other large hubs, as seen through the results of Munich (-61.5%), Helsinki (-60.2%), Frankfurt (-53.4%) and Zurich (-51.8%). Meanwhile, those hubs relying predominantly on the Americas such as Dublin (-33.9%) and Lisbon (-25.4%) benefited from the restart of the transatlantic market, ACI observed.
With passenger traffic at -28.6% in February compared to -38% in January, smaller regional airports posted the best performance amongst the different segments of the European airport industry.
More generally, ACI said the ability of low-cost carriers to quickly redeploy capacity and the fact that the recovery remains largely driven by leisure and VFR (visiting friends and family) demand saw selected regional and smaller capital airports significantly outperform the European average.
These included Batumi (+38.1%), Oradea (+12.7%), Ajaccio (-3.5%), Palermo (-7.4%), Antwerp (-10.1%), Lanzarote (-10.6%) Tenerife-South (-13.9%), Charleroi (-14.5%), Montpellier (-14.6%), Bergamo (-15.8%), Zagreb (-17.9%), Krakow (-23.2%), Antalya (-27.0%), Nice (-26.3%) and Budapest (-36.2%).
Assessing the February results, ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec said: “Improvements to passenger traffic in February reflected the fact that States started to ease restrictions as the Omicron wave subsided, both at local level and those relating to travel. Since then, most restrictions to intra-European travel have been lifted and more external markets are opening up, meaning the traffic recovery has gathered steam.
“The outlook for the Easter holidays and into the Summer months is strong, but staff shortages, high traffic peaks and ATM capacity issues are starting to put strain on operations and to impact quality. Above all, there is no escaping the fact that the war in Ukraine has devastated the country’s airports and that it also comes with significant downside risks for European air traffic.”
