European airports said Thursday that they could take more than ten years to recover financially from the Covid-19 crisis, to the detriment in particular of their investments in the climate field.
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A month after some of the managers of this equipment committed to “
carbon neutrality
” in 2030, 20 years ahead of the sector's objective, the organization bringing them together warned against an “
effect
”.
scissors
”which will“
limit (their) ambitious program
”for reducing CO2 emissions. The health crisis and its attendant travel restrictions have hit the European aviation sector very hard, including airports which saw their turnover fall by 60% and their losses reach 12 billion euros in 2020, according to the organization. ACI Europe.
The upturn in traffic that seems to start this summer will be weak and uneven, and the level of attendance in 2019 will not be recovered at best until 2025, warned ACI Europe, which represents more than 500 facilities in 55 countries.
“
Insufficient
”
revenue
at least until 2032
The recovery will "
not immediately put them back into a healthy financial situation, far from it,
" warned the CEO of ACI Europe, Olivier Jankovec, quoted in a press release. For the organization, airport activity will be marked by "
peaks
" which will require significant resources, but also periods of low attendance: "
costs (for airports) will increase but revenues will remain well below the levels. before the pandemic
”.
Predictable consequence?
More debt for a sector that has already used it to the tune of 20 billion euros in 2020 alone, assured the organization.
And for this one, study in support, "
the receipts of the airports will remain insufficient to meet the needs of investment and the repayment of the debts at least until 2032
".
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For ACI Europe, its members have received less help than the airlines in the face of the crisis. And this made obvious the need for a reform of the financing of airport operations, in particular the regulatory cap on the charges paid by the companies to the installations. "
Airports do not want preferential treatment because of the Covid-19 crisis, but fairness so that they can invest prudently in their infrastructure (...) and respect their environmental objectives
", according to the organization.