European airport trade body ACI EUROPE released yesterday its air traffic report covering the month of June, as well as Quarter 2 (Q2) and the first half (H1) of 2023.

International demand brings passenger volumes close to fully recovery

Passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by +28.3% in H1 2023 compared to the same period last year — with international traffic (+32.2%) growing at twice the rate of domestic traffic (+16.6%). The pace of growth eased in Q2 (+16.3%) compared to Q1 (+49%), reflecting the fact that COVID-19 restrictions on intra-European travel had largely been lifted as of April last year.

When compared to pre-pandemic (2019) levels, passenger volumes stood at -7.7% in H1 — steadily improving over the period from -11% in January to -5.9% in June.

 Freight and aircraft movements

Freight traffic across the European airport network decreased by -7.1% in H1 compared to the same period last year, and by -11.7% compared to pre-pandemic (H1 2019) levels.

Amongst the top 10 European airport for freight traffic, the best performances in H1 when compared to pre-pandemic volumes came from: Istanbul (+28%), Milan-MXP (+24%), Leipzig/Halle (20%), Madrid (+17%) and Koln-Bonn (+14%).

Aircraft movements in H1 increased by +15.5% across the European airport network compared to the same period last year, and decreased by -11% when compared to pre-pandemic (H1 2019) levels.

The integral version of the report (three pages) is attached to this AVIONEWS.