Update 11 August: Heathrow airport has reported an 88 per cent drop in July passenger numbers to 860,000. More than half of those travelled to European destinations, but the airport said 60 per cent of its route network remains grounded due to quarantine requirements. CEO John Holland-Kaye has again called on the UK government to implement testing for arriving passengers as a way to avoid the 14-day self-isolation period.
Trade body Airports Council International (ACI) Europe has released its air traffic report
for the second quarter of 2020 along with a stark warning that airports stand
to be severely impacted by a slow-down in the aviation industry’s recovery.
According to the report, Q2 traffic came to a near
standstill, with European airports seeing a 96.4 per cent drop in passenger
numbers. For the first half to 30 June, there was a 64.2 per cent decrease in traffic.
ACI Europe said this fall in numbers was not as pronounced at non-EU airports
(-59.8 per cent) as it was within the union (65.6 per cent), most likely due to
less stringent lockdowns in several countries outside of the bloc and domestic
air services being less affected than international ones.
Two Russian airports ranked among the top five in Europe in
terms of passenger traffic, with Moscow Domodedovo becoming the busiest during
the month of June with 716,800 passengers (a decrease of 73.3 per cent year on
year), followed by Paris-CDG at 625,900 (down 90.9 per cent), Moscow
Sheremetyevo at 622,800 (down 86.5 per cent), Frankfurt at 599,200 (down 90.9
per cent) and Istanbul at 591,000 (down 90.1 per cent).
London Heathrow airport, which normally holds the top spot,
fell to 11th position with just over 350,700 passengers compared to
7.24 million in June last year. Amsterdam Schiphol, the third-busiest European
airport last year, came down to seventh position with 471,800 passengers.
ACI Europe said the results at other airports reflects the
lack of alignment between EU member states in lifting travel restrictions, with
Athens welcoming more passengers than Munich (-87.9 per cent versus -95.1 per
cent) and Bergen seeing more than Lisbon and Copenhagen (-74.9 per cent versus -94.7
per cent and -94.9 per cent respectively).
The report also shows UK airports lagged significantly
behind their peers in June, likely due to blanket quarantine restrictions for
incoming travellers imposed by the UK government. Gatwick saw a 99.4 per cent
decrease in passenger numbers, falling from tenth place in the month’s rankings
last year to 92nd in 2020, Manchester falling from 18th
to 73rd, Stansted from 24th to 59th,
Birmingham from 48th to 125th and Newcastle from 93rd
to 170th.
With the drop in commercial passenger flights came a downturn
in freight activity, which fell 16 per cent in the first half of the year.
Even following attempts to ease travel restrictions at the
EU level in mid-June, ACI Europe said the recovery in traffic has been slower
than expected, echoing a report on airlines’ performance by IATA. The pace of
recovery has slowed further in the last two weeks as several states, such as
the UK, have re-introduced travel restrictions. Traffic across the European
network declined 78 per cent year on year in July. Since the start of the year,
European airports have lost 969 million passengers, according to the report.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, commented:
“The recovery is far too slow-paced and uncertain. Despite desperate efforts to
trim down their costs, Europe’s airports are burning cash at the height of the
summer. Revenues are weak because of the combination of low volumes with
rebates and incentives to airlines to attract and incentivise air traffic.
Considering the seasonality of demand, this does not bode well for the coming
months. If the recovery does not accelerate significantly, many airports will simply
run out of money.”
ACI Europe is lobbying governments to provide more targeted support to help airports survive the crisis, saying airlines being provided billions of euros in bailouts are still refusing to pay their airport charges.