The number of passengers at European airports in July was nearly as high as in July 2019 before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, figures from the ACI Europe airport association show on Tuesday.
Compared to the same month in 2019, European airports received 97% of passengers in July this year – the closest to a full recovery to pre-Covid levels so far, according to the association. In June, passenger traffic at European airports reached 94.1% of 2019 levels.
"People attach more importance than ever to travelling for pleasure and meeting friends," said the director of ACI Europe, Olivier Jankovec. "And that despite the increase in the cost of living and record price rises for plane tickets."
However he warned that the recovery is unevenly distributed: for example, passenger traffic to holiday countries such as Greece and Croatia, as well as Iceland, was more than 15% higher in July than before Covid, while countries such as Finland, Sweden, Slovenia and Germany are still far from a full recovery.
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In Belgium, the two Walloon airports even performed better in July than before the pandemic, with Charleroi at +10.4% in passengers and Liège at +12.4% in freight.
The largest passenger airport in Europe in July was Heathrow (London), ahead of Istanbul and Charles-de-Gaulle (Paris).
