Passenger site visitors saved recovering within the first quarter of 2023 throughout the European airport community, as volumes elevated by 49% in comparison with the identical interval final yr, in keeping with European airport commerce physique ACI EUROPE’s air site visitors report. The expansion considerably slowed down in March, at +34%, reflecting the truth that journey restrictions had been being lifted at the moment final yr and passenger site visitors had began recovering in consequence.
Passenger site visitors within the first quarter was simply 10.6% beneath pre-pandemic (Q1 2019) ranges. Worldwide passenger site visitors retains driving the restoration and getting nearer to pre-pandemic ranges (-9%), whereas home passenger site visitors is lagging behind (-18.5%). That is pointing to structural market adjustments ensuing from elements together with altering shopper behaviours and modal shifts.
By the top of March, 45% of Europe’s airports had recovered or exceeded their pre-pandemic volumes, up from 40% in February.
EU+ airports (EU, EEA, Switzerland and UK) noticed passenger volumes growing by 53.4% within the first quarter in comparison with the identical interval final yr. When in comparison with pre-pandemic (Q1 2019) ranges, EU+ passenger site visitors stood at -11.5%, however with vital divergences in efficiency. This displays a restoration nonetheless predominantly pushed by leisure and blended demand in addition to selective capability growth from Extremely-Low-Value Carriers, together with the affect of the warfare in Ukraine.
Airports in Portugal (+15.2%), Croatia (+12.1%), Luxembourg (+9.1%) and Cyprus (+8.4%) nicely exceeded their pre-pandemic volumes, whereas airports in Slovakia (-44.9%), Slovenia (-41.2%), Germany (-32.2%), the Czech Republic (-29.7%) and Finland (-26.2%) remained the farthest from a full restoration.
Amongst the most important EU+ markets, and apart from the underperformance of German airports (additionally ensuing from industrial motion), airports in Spain (+1.7%) posted one of the best outcomes, adopted by these in Italy (-6.8%), France (-11.4%) and the UK (-12.9%).
At airports in the remainder of Europe (Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine and Uzbekistan), passenger site visitors grew by +30.2% within the first quarter in comparison with the identical interval final yr. When in comparison with pre-pandemic (Q1 2019) ranges, passenger site visitors in the remainder of Europe outperformed the EU+ market at simply -6%.
Whereas airports in Ukraine (-100%) have misplaced all of their passenger site visitors for greater than a yr, these in Russia (+4.5%) managed to stay above their pre-pandemic volumes within the first quarter as passenger demand has shifted to home and non-EU+ markets. This boosted the efficiency of airports in Uzbekistan (+112.5%), Kazakhstan (+55.1), Armenia (+37.6%) and Serbia (+26.3%).
In the meantime airports within the main market of Türkiye (-4.9%) got here near a full restoration and people in Albania (+91%) achieved spectacular progress due to the capability deployed by Extremely-Low-Value Carriers.
Passenger site visitors on the Majors (high 5 European airports in 2019 – London-Heathrow, Istanbul, Paris-CDG, Amsterdam-Schiphol and Frankfurt) grew by +52.4% within the first quarter in comparison with the identical interval final yr. Volumes remained -11.2% beneath pre-pandemic (Q1 2019) ranges as a result of decrease hub provider capability deployment and the affect of the re-opening of China nonetheless restricted.
Amongst the present high 5 European airports (London-Heathrow, Istanbul, Paris-CDG, Madrid and Amsterdam-Schiphol) Istanbul (+5.9%) and Madrid (0%) had been the one ones having recovered their pre-pandemic (Q1 2019) ranges. London-Heathrow (-5.7%) re-established itself because the busiest European airport, adopted by Istanbul, Paris-CDG (-13.2%), Madrid and Amsterdam-Schiphol (-20.8%).
The German hubs, Frankfurt (-23.3%) and Munich (-30.1%), considerably under-performed their friends, with decrease Low-Value Provider penetration and strikes being contributing elements.
In the meantime, the resilience of leisure demand to inflationary pressures and better air fares and the reliance on Low-Value Airline site visitors resulted in numerous different massive and capital airports exceeding their pre-pandemic volumes within the first quarter: Lisbon (+13.9%), Tel Aviv (+14%), Palma de Mallorca (+2.4%), Athens (+2.3%) and Dublin (+1.9%).
These identical restoration patterns and market dynamics had been to the continued good thing about numerous massive Extremely-Low-Value airport bases: Beauvais (+34.3%), Bergamo (+19.7%) and Charleroi (+16%). In addition they benefitted regional and smaller airports the place passenger site visitors within the first quarter was simply –4.5% beneath their pre-pandemic (Q1 2019) volumes. These serving standard vacationer vacation spot and/or counting on Low-Value Carriers posted spectacular performances, together with Kutaisi (+61.4%), Varna (+59.1%), Madeira (+43.5%), Asturias (+36.4%), Memmingen (+40.3%), Trapani (+31.9%) Rotterdam (+26.8%), Lodz (+36.7%), Paphos (+29.1%) and Chania (+20.6%)
