Entry bans, suspended flights, and different travel restrictions imposed by the European governments in a bid to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus have resulted in the vanishing of over 6,000 air routes previously operated from Europe’s airports.
Based on an annual report on the Airport Industry Connectivity revealed by Airport Council International (ACI Europe), all through the first nine months of 2020 more than 6,000 routes that existed pre-pandemic remained ‘unused’.
The report, which measures the extent to which Europe’s airports and their communities are related to and accessible from the rest of the world highlights that the pandemic has hit worst the airports situated in EU-27 and the UK, with their direct connectivity nearly disappearing in April.
Data reveals that the sharpest decreases in direct connectivity as of September had been registered on the following airports:
- Madrid-Barajas, Spain – 71 per cent
- Rome-Fiumicino, Italy – 70 per cent
- Munich, Germany – 68 percent
- London-Heathrow, UK – 68 percent
- Frankfurt, Germany – 67 percent
Commenting on the report, the Director-General of ACI Europe Olivier Jankovec, stated that the damage caused by COVID-19 is so systemic that relying solely on market forces to revive air connectivity is not possible.
“The EU and governments across Europe should urgently intervene to assist jump-start it. We’d like a Restoration Framework for aviation that includes ‘Air Connectivity Restart Schemes’ just like that seen in Cyprus – with temporary financial contributions aimed at supporting the restart of air routes on a non-discriminatory basis,” Jankovec noted.
Along with bigger airports, smaller regional airports have suffered much more from the pandemic, marking drastic declines in direct connectivity. Essentially the most affected regional airports have been the following:
- Linz, Austria – 96 per cent
- Treviso, Italy – 95 per cent
- Vaasa, Finland – 91 per cent
- Quimper, France – 87 per cent
- Newquay, England – 86 percent
- Shannon, Ireland – 83 percent
- Burgas, Bulgaria – 82 per cent
Due to the size and relative dynamic of their domestic market, direct connectivity at Russian and Turkish airports has proven more resilient with lower direct connectivity losses for Moscow-Domodedovo (12 percent), Saint Petersburg (26 percent decrease), Moscow-Vnukovo (28 percent decrease), and Turkey’s Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen (33 percent decrease).
“Hub connectivity has been much more affected than direct connectivity, with the Majors (top 6 European airports for hub connectivity) having recovered only 16 percent of their hub connectivity by September,” the report notes.
In an earlier report revealed in November, ACI Europe had pointed out there had been marked a lower of about 81 percent in passenger traffic at the airports positioned within the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK, in comparison with final yr, same period.
As much as that time, European airports had lost about 1.5 billion passengers from the beginning of the yr, with 20 of the top airports in Europe working with reduced expenses by €3 billion.
