European airports only recovered 41% of their 2019 passengers last year, against a backdrop of Delta and Omicron variants, a chaotic recovery insufficient to erase the cataclysm of 2020, according to figures published on Tuesday.
In 2020, when the outbreak of Covid-19 had brought the air sector to a halt for several weeks, traffic at airports on the Old Continent had collapsed by 70% over one year to 728 million passengers.
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It rebounded by 37% in 2021 to some 1 billion travellers, thus still remaining cut by 1.4 billion passengers compared to the last full year before the pandemic, specified the European branch of the International Airports Council (ACI Europe). ).
Another challenge for a sector suffering from significant fixed costs and “
financially weakened
”, the recovery has been chaotic with very strong variations imposed by the evolution of the pandemic, noted the organization in a press release.
“
The Delta variant generally knocked out traffic in the first half of the year
”, with airport traffic down 77.7% compared to the same period of 2019, as “
containments and movement restrictions were reimposed
”. On the other hand, the second half benefited from vaccination campaigns, the deployment of the European health certificate and then the reopening of the North American market, allowing a return to passenger volumes 42.4% lower than those of two years earlier.
However, "
the Omicron variant broke this dynamic in December
", noted ACI Europe, regretting the "
hasty
"
reactions
of many states to impose new travel restrictions.
For 2022, ACI Europe, which brings together 500 airport facilities located in 55 countries (in the EU, but also in the United Kingdom, Russia, Turkey, Israel, etc.), remains very cautious.
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“
The uncertainties about the evolution of the pandemic remain significant and limit visibility at best to a few months
”, underlined its managing director, Olivier Jankovec.
The sector is still suffering the consequences of the Omicron wave and “
the first quarter will be disappointing
”, predicted this official, quoted in the press release.
He said he hoped "to
see an improvement as spring approaches
", although "
it will depend on the pace at which restrictions are lifted
".
