EUROPE. Airports International Council (ACI) Europe today revealed that January passenger numbers across Europe rose +148% year-on-year. However, its latest traffic report also reveals that passenger volumes were -45.7% below pre-pandemic levels (January 2019) and are significantly behind the -37.4% December 2021 result.
The airport trade body observed that Omicron-related travel restrictions halted the recovery with airlines adjusting capacity downward.
ACI Europe also noted that the encouraging year-on-year January figure was against a low traffic base during a period when large parts of Europe remained in full lockdown and access to most intercontinental markets was shut off.
The deterioration of passenger traffic was mainly driven by the EU+ market (EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland), where passenger traffic fell from -43.7% in December to -51.1% in January [all percentages are against 2019 figures]. The Omicron effect was much more limited in the rest of Europe however, with passenger traffic only dropping from -20.1% in December to -23.8% in January.
Within the EU+ market, the slump in domestic passenger traffic was particularly severe, from -28.8% in December to -45% in January. ACI said this reflected local restrictions limiting social activities and impacting mobility in many countries.
International passenger traffic also decreased, from -47.8% in December to -52.8% in January, due, ACI observed, to the reintroduction of restrictions to travel within the EU/EEA, including for fully vaccinated travellers.
“January saw the recovery going into reverse mode, due to the attempts of many European countries to contain Omicron through a combination of local measures and largely inefficient travel restrictions. The positive thing is that we are now out of these dynamics” – ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec
The performance gap in passenger traffic between national EU+ markets widened significantly in January. ACI said this was partly as a reflection of the different responses from European countries to Omicron as regards both local and travel restrictions.
The best performances came from airports located in Croatia (-33.3%), Spain (-37.5%), Bulgaria (-38.2%) and Portugal (-38.9%). Airports in Czech Republic (-64.9%), Sweden (-61.8%), Finland (-61.2%) and Germany (-60.6%) recorded the biggest declines.
In the rest of Europe, airports in the smaller markets of Kosovo (+15%), Albania (+13.1%) and Bosnia Herzegovina (+5.7%) all achieved passenger traffic volumes in excess of pre-pandemic levels in January.
In larger markets, airports in Russia (-9.9%) were close to recovering their pre-pandemic (2019) volumes thanks to the continued resurgence of its domestic market, followed by those in Ukraine (-23.2%) and Turkey (-34.4%).
Omicron-related restrictions weighed heavily on airports in Israel (-69.2%) and Iceland (-64.4%,) while those in Belarus (-54.1%) kept being impacted by international sanctions – in particular the EU ban on Belarusian airlines, ACI noted.
The passenger traffic performance of the Majors (top five European airports) also deteriorated in January at -48.5% against the preceding month (-42.3% in December) and remained below the European average.
The Omicron travel restrictions also altered the composition of the top league with Moscow-Sheremetyevo (-30.2%) replacing Amsterdam-Schiphol (-50.3%) in the fifth position. Istanbul (-33.5%) retained its status as the busiest European airport, followed by Paris-CDG (-49.3%), Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez (-38.7%) and London-Heathrow (-56.2%).
With passenger traffic retreating from -25% in December 2021 to -38% in January, smaller regional airports (below 5 million passengers per annum pre-pandemic) on average experienced the sharpest decline.
ACI also pointed out that, as in previous months, mostly insular airports and those serving popular tourism destinations were more resilient. These include Trapani (-15.3%), Ajaccio (-15.5%), Ibiza (-16.3%), Varna (-16.7%), Fuerteventura (-27.7%), Tenerife Norte (-21%) and Funchal (-25.6%).
Reflecting on the January figures, ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec said: “January saw the recovery going into reverse mode, due to the attempts of many European countries to contain Omicron through a combination of local measures and largely inefficient travel restrictions. The positive thing is that we are now out of these dynamics.
“Travel regimes are finally aligning, allowing fully vaccinated people to freely travel again both within and outside Europe, and local restrictions are also being eased across the continent. But just as prospects were finally brightening, the atrocious invasion of Ukraine by Russia is now casting the longest of shadows.”
