(Finance) – “Before the war we were very confident about the recovery this summer. The airlines expected to deploy the same capacity as in 2029, but now the conflict can change things”. That’s what he said Olivier Jankovec, general manager of Aci Europe -Airports Council International, the world federation of airports that brings together 500 airports from 48 countries, in its speech at the opening of the second day of Aci Race, the 13th edition of the assembly of European regional airports, curated by Gesap, which is taking place at the Massimo theater in Palermo
“If we look at the data in the months of January and February, overall, the network of European airports marked -45% of passenger traffic compared to 2019 – he said. Jankovec -. The indications we had for this summer were very positive, especially on the European market, with the achievement of traffic levels almost like 2019. Now things have changed a bit. Obviously, airports that have a strong dependence on the Russian / Ukrainian market, Bulgaria, Cyprus and those close to the conflict area will suffer the most, where there may be a sort of loss of confidence in travel “. Jankovec estimates, for most of the European regional ports traffic prospects calculated on the basis of the carriers’ plans lead to an estimated overcoming of the prepandemic levels estimated between + 1.2% and + 2.2% while for the large international airports the activity of the airlines will remain well below
“Now that there is health security, we need full alignment at European and global level on the travel rules related to the pandemic – continued Jankovec -. At the moment we still have different rules between states. We must take note of the fact that the travel restrictions they have almost always been totally ineffective in stopping the progression of Covid-19. It makes no sense to continue to maintain travel restrictions such as swabs and mandatory quarantines, which have created economic damage to airlines, airport management companies and all related territories “.
The general manager of Aci Europe has pointed the finger at “new taxes on air transport” that in the light of the crisis resulting from two years of pandemic “would not make sense”. “Air connectivity – underlined Jankovec – is a key factor in the economic recovery. For every 10% increase in direct air connectivity, an increase in per capita GDP equal to 0.5% is automatically generated”.
According to data released by the Airports Council International in the two-year period 2020-2021 European airports lost a total of 821 million passengers, a value that is equivalent to three times the increase in traffic accumulated in the previous ten years. Since last summer, air traffic has seen the beginning of a general tendency to resume connections with greater dynamism of small airports and regional traffic, compared to hubs and larger airports, penalized by traffic restrictions. international. A trend that – underlines Aci Europe – was also confirmed in the first months of the year, despite the negative impact due to the Omicron variant.
As calculated by Aci, the smaller airports have already recovered 64% of the volume of pre-Covid passenger traffic (2019) while the larger airports have stopped at 53%, hampered in particular by restrictions in the Asian area. This different trend will also characterize the current year.