Passenger traffic across the European airport network only
showed marginal improvement in June thanks in part to an “incomplete lifting of
travel restrictions”, according to Airports Council International Europe (ACI
Europe).
June traffic was down 93 per cent compared to the same
period last month – a marginal improvement over the 98 per cent decline seen in
May, said ACI Europe. Across the continent, airports saw 16.8 million
passengers in June compared to 240 million in the same period in 2019.
However, with some travel restrictions lifting within the EU
and Schengen area throughout the month, daily passenger volumes increased
nearly threefold from 267,000 passengers on 1 June to 757,000 on 30 June –
still miles off the 8 million daily average seen last year.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, commented:
“The recovery in passenger traffic is proceeding at a slower pace than we had
hoped for. This was the case in June, and initial data for July also indicates
we’re likely to recover only 19 per cent of last year’s traffic rather than the
30 per cent we had forecast. This is down to the still incomplete lifting of
travel restrictions within the EU/Schengen area and the UK – as well as the
permanence of travel bans for most other countries. The fact that EU and
Schengen states have not yet managed to effectively coordinate and align over
their travel policies down not help, as it is not conducive to restoring
confidence in travel and tourism in the middle of the peak summer season.”
ACI Europe has now updated its predictions for the recovery
of air travel, with a full recovery in passenger traffic to 2019 levels now not
expected until 2024 rather than 2023 as per its previous forecast. The
organisation believes Europe’s airports will lose 1.57 billion passengers in
2020, a decrease of 64 per cent compared to last year, while revenues will drop
67 per cent to €32.4 billion.
Jankovec added: “The financial situation of airports is not
significantly improving – with some even making more losses now compared to
their situation prior to the restart. Considering that the peak summer season
normally accounts for a large share of annual revenues and the fact that
temporary unemployment schemes are coming to an end in many EU states – not to
mention fierce airline pressure on airport charges – liquidity will remain an
ongoing concern through the winter. Many airports, especially smaller regional
airports, will need financial relief. This requires looking beyond the current
EC Temporary Framework on state aid which is ending next December.”