June 7 (Reuters) – Passenger traffic in European airports in April was the closest to a full recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic of any month so far, Airports Council International (ACI) Europe said on Wednesday.
The trade association representing European airports said passenger traffic rose 21.1% in April from a year earlier.
That was still 7.6% below April 2019, ACI said, but an improvement on the 10.6% decline across the first quarter from pre-pandemic levels.
The news will likely please airport operators such as Aeroports de Paris and airlines such as Air France and Lufthansa , which took a hit from pandemic-related travel curbs.
The ACI said April marked the “closest yet” to a full recovery in traffic from the pandemic, helped by demand over the Easter holidays.
“This is quite remarkable when the increase in air fares is more than 6 times above consumer price inflation,” ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec said in a statement.
Nevertheless, European airports’ performances varied significantly, with less than half of them fully recovering their pre-pandemic passenger volumes.
While Icelandic, Cypriot, Greek, and Portuguese airports among others exceeded pre-COVID levels, those in Slovenia, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were the furthest from fully rebounding.
Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash
