International passenger traffic across Europe reached pre-pandemic levels for the first time in January, according to the latest figures by airports association ACI Europe.
International traffic achieved a ‘full recovery’ to January 2019 figures, however domestic traffic remained 13 per cent below the 2019 baseline. Overall passenger traffic came in at just 3 per cent below pre-pandemic volumes.
ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec said air travel recovery is “enduring” despite price inflation and geopolitical uncertainties.
“Demand generally remained resilient [in January] in the face of much increased air fares, even though the growth dynamic slowed down or even stalled in a few markets. This is adding further divergences to an already much fragmented airport market, where geopolitics and structural aviation market changes – including the primacy of leisure demand and selective low-cost carrier expansion – are shaping traffic performance like never before.”
He added: “Looking at the months ahead, macro-economic conditions are set to improve in the EU and the UK in particular, with further drops in inflation and growth in real wages.”
Airports in the European Economic Area (EEA) along with Switzerland and the UK led passenger growth in January, with an 8 per cent increase compared to January 2022.
When compared to pre-pandemic levels, these markets stood at -4 per cent, with those airports predominantly relying on leisure and VFR demand exceeding the pre-pandemic volumes.
Domestic traffic volumes saw a notable decline in Germany (‑50.9 per cent), Sweden (-41.6 per cent) and Finland (-31.5 per cent) as well as in France (-30.5 per cent) and the UK (‑21.6 per cent) compared to January 2019 volumes.
This contrasts with airports in Spain (+12.9 per cent), Portugal (+7.3 per cent), Greece (+6.9 per cent) and Italy (+1.3 per cent) where domestic passenger traffic exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
Air traffic at the region’s biggest airports (with more than 40 million passengers per annum) grew 8.3 per cent year-on-year in January on the back of strong transatlantic demand, the progressive return of Chinese travellers and network airlines adding more capacity.
London Heathrow topped the list as the region’s busiest airport with a 9.4 per cent year-on-year increase in traffic and +1.3 per cent compared to January 2019.
Istanbul came in second with just 8,000 passengers less than the British hub (+6.4 per cent vs. Jan 2023 and +15 per cent vs. 2019), followed by Paris CDG (+2.2 per cent vs. Jan 2023 and -10.2 per cent vs. Jan 2019) and Madrid (+8.1 per cent vs. Jan 2023 and +9.2 per cent vs. Jan 2019).
Rome Fiumicino’s impressive growth (+27.9 per cent vs. Jan 2023 and +5.2 per cent vs. Jan 2019) also boosted performance of the major airports throughout January.