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European Airports Welcomed Nearly 2 Million Passengers Last Year, ACI Report Shows
Such conclusions have been reached through the recent report provided by the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe,AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
The report revealed that passenger traffic across the European airport network almost doubled, increasing by a total of 98 per cent last year, in comparison to the figures for 2021, thus reaching a total of 1.94 billion travellers. Still, it was reported that the figures were below by 21 per cent compared to pre-pandemic volumes, with only 27 per cent of airports in Europe having entirely recovered their passenger traffic level of pre-pandemic.
In this regard, the Director General of ACI EUROPE, Olivier Jankovec, considered the increase in passenger traffic last year 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 macroeconomics, 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,” Jankovec pointed out in this regard.
In addition, Jankovec said that in this perspective this is still not a full recovery, stressing that airports in Europe are still short 500 million travellers last year compared to where they remained before the spread of the Coronavirus and its new variants. He added that there is still a significant gap in traffic performance between hubs as well as other smaller airports and across national markets.
As for the future, he stressed that there are still many uncertainties about this year, not only due to geopolitical tensions and the fact that there is no end to the situation in Ukraine, following Russia’s invasion. However, he stressed that the traffic outlook is getting better following the increased travel demand.
The recent report provided by ACI also revealed the fact that airports in the European Union marked saw an increase in passenger traffic by a total of 122 per cent last year, compared to the figures for 2021.
At the same time, it was reported that the surge in passenger traffic at airports in other European countries was relatively moderate at 26 per cent. According to ACI, this was caused due to the lesser impact of the Coronavirus on air traffic in 2021.