Europe’s airports came closest to full recovery in January for the first time since the start of the Covid crisis as they gear up to prevent a repeat of last summer’s worker shortage disruption.
Figures issued by European airport trade body ACI Europe show that passenger numbers were just 11% below pre-pandemic January 2019 levels, with an improvement on December volumes.
Passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by 69% in January compared to the same month last year when Omicron-related travel restrictions had halted the recovery.
The growth was mainly driven by an 85% rise in international passenger traffic, with domestic numbers up 35%.
Airports in Spain posted the best results, followed by those in Italy, France and the UK.
The January statistics show Istanbul overtaking Heathrow as Europe’s busiest airport with 5.64 million passengers, seeing the Turkish exceed its January 2019 volumes by 8.1%.
Heathrow came second with 5.49 million passengers – 7.2% below pre-pandemic levels – followed by Paris-CDG with 4.72 million, Madrid with 4.43 million and Amsterdam Schiphol with 3.9 million.
However, the impact of the war in Ukraine and the lack of penetration or loss of low cost traffic meant airports in Slovakia, Slovenia the Czech Republic and Germany remained the farthest from achieving a full recovery, according to the data.
ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec said: “2023 is off to a pretty good start thanks to the continued resilience of passenger demand in the face of higher air fares and wider inflationary pressures across the economy.”
He pointed out that 42% of Europe’s airports have now recovered their pre-pandemic traffic volumes, adding that “while there are significant performance variations across markets, we expect more to hit the same milestone in the coming months”.
Jankovec saidf: “Continued capacity expansion by ultra-low-cost carriers and the recent lifting of pre-departure testing requirements for travellers from China should keep driving the recovery forward for airports.
“For now, our immediate focus is on getting ready for the peak summer season.
“Europe’s airports have stepped up preparedness plans. In doing so, they have reached out to all their operational partners – airlines, ground handlers, border control forces and air traffic control – to identify possible risks and stress points, in particular as regards staffing levels, and to devise mitigation measures.
“By and large, the aviation system capacity on the ground should cope with demand – and capacity limitations will remain the exception.”