The latest air traffic report for April 2023, published by the Airports Council International (ACI Europe), shows that passenger traffic quite well approached the pre-pandemic levels, marking a significant recovery in April this year.
As a result, during this period, passenger traffic in the network of European airports increased by +21.1 per cent compared to April 2022, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
According to ACI Europe figures, compared to pre-pandemic levels, volumes in April this year stood at -7.6 per cent – a further improvement compared to the first quarter of 2023, which was at -10.6 per cent.
During April 2023, EU+2 airports also saw an increase in passenger traffic by +19.1 per cent compared to the same month last year, thus marking an increase in volumes up to -8.1 per cent below their pre-pandemic levels.
Among the airports that exceeded their pre-pandemic volumes with good results are the following:
- Iceland (+14.5 per cent)
- Cyprus (+11.9 per cent)
- Greece (+11 per cent)
- Portugal (+10.7 per cent)
- Bulgaria (+8.7 per cent)
- Malta (+8.4 per cent)
As for airports in Slovenia (-39.8 per cent), Germany (-26.1 per cent), Slovakia (-25.9 per cent) and the Czech Republic (-23.7 per cent), they remained the furthest from a complete recovery.
The excellent performance of the largest markets was driven by leisure and the increasing fame of the ultra-low-cost carrier markets – with airports in Spain (+2.7 per cent) and Italy (one per cent) achieving a full recovery, followed by those in the United Kingdom (-9.3 per cent), France (-12.8 per cent).
At the same time, passenger traffic also increased at airports in the rest of Europe by +35.3 per cent in April compared to the same month last year, resulting in volumes only -4.1 per cent below April 2019 levels.
Moreover, during April of this year, passenger traffic at the five main European airports increased by +23.4 per cent compared to the same month last year. On the other hand, volumes remained -9.8 per cent below pre-pandemic levels due to lower central carrier capacity deployment and the low impact of China’s reopening.
London-Heathrow led the top five European airports in April by welcoming 6.4 million passengers. This figure shows an increase of +25.9 per cent compared to the same month last year and a decrease of -5.9 per cent compared to 2019.
In second place came Istanbul, with an increase of +34.3 per cent in passenger traffic compared to April 2022 and an impressive +10.8 per cent over pre-pandemic levels. The Turkish hub was followed by Paris-CDG with +19.3 per cent over April 2022 and -15.5 per cent in comparison with April 2019.
Amsterdam-Schiphol was +15.6 per cent over April 2022 or -16 per cent over pre-pandemic, while Madrid with +20.6 per cent over April 2019 or -3.5 per cent over pre-pandemic.