Airports Council International (ACI) Europe reported full-year traffic figures for 2020, which reveal that passenger volumes fell by -70.4%, or 1.72 billion, compared to 2019.
EU airports (-73% year-on-year and 1.32 billion passengers lost) were hit harder than those in the non-EU bloc (-61.9% and 400 million passengers lost).
This is mainly due to the size and relative resilience of domestic markets primarily in Russia but also Turkey, noted ACI Europe, combined with less stringent lockdowns and travel restrictions compared to the EU market.
The performance between the EU and non-EU markets became more apparent in the second half of the year. While both EU and non-EU airports saw passenger traffic almost coming to a stand still in Q2 (respectively -97.3% and -93.3%), losses in Q4 stood at -83.8% at EU airports compared to -63.9% at non-EU airports.
With just 728 million passengers in 2020 compared to 2.4 billion passengers in the previous year, Europe’s airports were back to their traffic levels of 1995.
Olivier Jankovec, ACI Europe Director General
The non-EU market held up well because of relative recovery in domestic travel (-39.8% in the period) compared to the EU market (-72.9%), although non-EU airports also outperformed EU ones for international passenger traffic (respectively -78.2% and -86.6%).
Because of strict lockdowns, in Q4 airports in Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia and Slovakia were still seeing passenger traffic below -90%. German and UK airports followed closely (-87.9% and -86.6%). Airports in Bulgaria (-69%), France (-78.1%), Greece (-72.1%) and Portugal (-77.2%) slightly outperformed the EU average.
Outside the EU, airports in the larger Russian (-44.2%) and Turkish (-60.7%) markets proved the most resilient in Q4, with those in Iceland (-96.2%) and Georgia (-94.8%) being the most impacted.
All segments of the airport industry were almost equally hit in 2020 in terms of passenger traffic losses, from the major locations (top 5 European airports) at -71.3% to smaller regionals at -69.4%.
ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec said: “With just 728 million passengers in 2020 compared to 2.4 billion passengers in the previous year, Europe’s airports were back to their traffic levels of 1995. No industry can on its own withstand such a shock. While some states have taken steps to financially support their airports, only €2.2 billion has so far been earmarked for that purpose in Europe. This is less than 8% of the revenues airports lost last year.
“With further decreases in traffic over the past weeks and no recovery in sight, more needs to be done. Helping out airports is essential to rebuild air connectivity and effectively support local and regional communities and tourism. It is also critical to restore airports’ investment capabilities for the future. Without more financial support, investments in decarbonisation, digitalisation and SESAR are at risk.”
Top five major hubs “unrecognisable”
The five hubs listed as ‘Majors’ in 2019 – London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt and Istanbul – lost 250 million passengers in 2020. Frankfurt (-73.4%) posted the largest decrease, closely followed by Heathrow (-72.7%), Schiphol (-70.9%), Paris CDG (-70.8%) and Istanbul (-59.6%).
By Q4, only Istanbul Airport remained in the list. The Turkish hub had by then become the busiest European airport, followed by the city’s second airport, Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen, and Moscow Sheremetyevo, Moscow Domodedovo and Moscow Vnukovo ranked three to five respectively.
