UK airports were the best performers in October as monthly passenger recovery from Covid stalled.
Latest figures released by European airport trade body ACI Europe show a 12% slump in October against the same month in pre-pandemic 2019.
This marks the first time since the spring that the recovery in monthly passenger traffic has been hit.
The organisation’s director general Olivier Jankovec said: “October saw the recovery in passenger traffic take a pause, with only 36% of European airports having so far fully recovered their pre-pandemic volumes.
“As most of these are regional and smaller airports, October also revealed a multi-speed and increasingly contrasted European airport market.”
He added: “There is no doubt an array of factors are combining to reshape the market. These range from the war in Ukraine, deteriorating macro-economics and continued travel restrictions to parts of Asia, through to low cost carriers selectively expanding capacity within Europe, fast rising air fares and changed demand patterns including the rise of ‘bleisure’ extending tourism seasons.
“We have now entered the winter season, and the big question mark is how these factors will interact and impact demand in the coming months.”
The best performances came from airports in the UK (+98.3%), Finland (+89.8%) and Ireland (+86.8%), where the recovery of air traffic in started later than in the rest of the EU-plus bloc, according to ACI Europe.
Passenger traffic across the European airport network grew by 40% in October compared to the same month last year.
The increase was still largely driven by international passenger traffic (+51%) with domestic passenger traffic (+12%) expanding at a much slower pace.
Istanbul remained the busiest European airport, handling nearly six million passengers during the month, bringing it almost to pre-pandemic October 2019 levels with volumes up by 36.7% compared to last October.
Heathrow came second followed by Paris-CDG with numbers respectively at 15.7% and 18.5% below pre-pandemic levels despite year-on-year increases of 93.6% and 67.6%.
Frankfurt – down 23.3% compared to pre-pandemic October 2019 – came fourth, followed by Amsterdam-Schiphol, down 23.6% over October 2019.