ACI Europe says, passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by 12.1 pc in Q3 compared to the year-ago
An Air Traffic Report for September and Q3 2023 released by the Airport Council International Europe has forecast a peak period for European air travel. Despite persistently higher air fares and enduring pressures from rising inflation, the summer months showed a very robust performance overall, says the report.
According to a press statement by ACI Europe, passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by 12.1 pc in Q3 compared to the year-ago.
ACI says ‘milestones’ were reached during Q3 when London-Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport by passenger volume, surpassed its 2019 traffic performance for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and about 48 pc of Europe’s airports had recovered their 2019 traffic volumes.
European Union+ market showing strength
The report says that in Q3, EU+ airports came close to their 2019 passenger traffic levels, standing just 4.2 pc below. This marks a significant achievement, as the EU market is now catching up with the rest of Europe accounting for 2.9 pc, which previously outpaced its air traffic recovery.
When compared to the same period last year, the EU market is up 11.9 pc and the rest of Europe by 13.1 pc saw passenger traffic increasing at a similar pace in Q3.
Country performance show disparities and multi-speed recovery
According to the report, amongst EU airports the best passenger traffic recovery in Q3 to 2019 levels came from airports in Luxembourg with a rise of 13.3 pc, Greece at 12.9 pc increase, Portugal at 11.0 pc, Malta with 6.5 pc and Croatia up by 6.4 pc.
At the other end of the spectrum, impacted still by the war in Ukraine and the closure of Russian airspace to EU airlines, airports in Finland at 32.8 pc remained well below their pre-pandemic passenger traffic levels. Other EU+ countries that also lagged in their recovery and remained more than 15 pc behind their 2019 Q3 levels included Slovenia at 26.1 pc, Sweden at 21.1 pc, Bulgaria 19.6 pc less, Germany with 18 pc, Latvia 16.8 pc and Czechia 15.6 pc below the peaks.
Airports in the rest of Europe continued to demonstrate remarkable dynamism in Q3, with the exception of those in Ukraine which have been losing all commercial air traffic since February 2022. Among the larger countries, Türkiye’s airports have outperformed their 2019 third-quarter levels by 6 pc, while Russian airports reported a 0.6 pc fall.
Notable strong performers in the region include airports in Albania with 114.9 pc buoyed by ultra-low cost carriers’ expansion as well as airports in Uzbekistan with 99.9 pc rise, Armenia at 70.9 pc and Kazakhstan at 46.3 pc all benefitting from traffic shifts in the wake of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
According to the report, passenger traffic at the top five European airports grew by more than 14.7 pc in Q3 compared to the same period last year, but still lagged behind by 4.7 pc below their pre-pandemic levels of Q3 2019.
London-Heathrow secured its top position during Q3, with a remarkable 22.9 pc year-on-year increase in passenger traffic. It exceeded its 2019 levels primarily due to a robust performance in September with 4.4 pc.
The statement says that Istanbul came second, with a mere 0.7 pc behind Heathrow, separated by less than 200,000 passengers. Its passenger traffic surged by 10.8 pc when compared to Q3 2021 and stood at an impressive 14.1 pc above its pre-pandemic Q3 2019 levels.
The report adds that Paris-CDG held the third place, with traffic increasing by 9.5 pc year-on-year and at 12.2 pc below its pre-pandemic volume. Amsterdam-Schiphol rose by 13.6 pc year on year and Frankfurt with 16.9 pc year-on-year placed in the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
