According to the Full Year 2022 & December 2022 Air Traffic Report from Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, the airport industry in the EU is making a comeback.
In 2022, 1,94 billion travellers passed through Europe’s airports, representing nearly double the number compared with 2021.
Director General of ACI Europe, Oliver Jankovec, said: “The surge in passenger traffic last year has been phenomenal. Kicking off in early spring when most travel restrictions were finally lifted, it boomed over the summer and remained resilient afterwards. All of this, despite geopolitical shocks, deteriorating macro-economics, fast-rising airfares and COVID still being with us. If anything, 2022 has been the year in which we finally learned how to live and travel with COVID-19.”
Despite passenger numbers having nearly doubled, these were still 21% below pre-pandemic numbers. Jankovec said: “This is not yet a full recovery. Europe’s airports were still short 500 million passengers in 2022, compared with where they stood before the pandemic hit.”
The European airports that received the most travellers last year were:
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Istanbul, which welcomed 64,3 million passengers, almost recovering its traffic volume at 6,2% less than pre-pandemic levels.
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London Heathrow, which saw 61,6 million passengers, 23,8% less than 2019.
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Paris-Charles de Gaulle, with 57,5 million passengers, 24,5% less than 2019.
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Amsterdam Schiphol, with 52,5 million passengers, 26,8% lower than 2019.
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Madrid, with 50,6 million passengers, 18% less than pre-pandemic numbers.
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Frankfurt, which saw 48,9 million passengers, 30,7% lower than 2019.
ACI Europe attributes the 21% shortfall partly to the continuation of travel restrictions by Asian countries and the fact that network airlines are still limiting capacity deployment.
In terms of the 2023 outlook, Jankovec says there is still a lot of uncertainty, especially due to geopolitical tensions, and that there’s no end in sight to the war in Ukraine. He does, however, point out that the reopening of China, subsiding recession fears in Europe, and softening inflation are all factors that contribute to the outlook improving.
