2020 will have had devastating effects on European air transport, including that of the United Kingdom. The results of IAG and the major UK airports, published last week, give a very clear idea of the extent of the damage.
If we start with IAG - the holding company bringing together British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus -it has transported 31.27 million passengers compared with 118.25 million a year earlier. This represents a fall of 73,6%.
Capacity has been reduced by an average of two-thirds by 2020. Capacity fell the most in Asia-Pacific and Europe, both down by more than 70%. At the beginning of the year, IAG was still showing capacity that was only 20% of what it would be in 2019. Passenger revenue down 75.5% and thenet losses reached 6.9 billion euros 1.7 billion a year earlier.
Airports in disarray
The situation is not much better at airports across the Channel. A London Heathrowpassenger traffic reached 22.1 million passengers by 2020. A figure that could have been even worse. It could have been worse, January and February 2020 alone generated half of these 22 million euros. passengers! In 2019, Heathrow welcomed almost 81 million passengers. Traffic onNorth America- the second largest segment after Europe - has collapsed. It fell by 79.5% with 3.9 million passengers. Asia-Pacific- third largest geographical segment- fell by 74.5% to 2.9 million. Europe looked a little glum, down 70.3% to 9.8 million passengers.
At the competing airport of London Gatwick - owned by the French Vinci group, passenger numbers were down 78.2 1TP3Q46.6 million to 10.2 million. Between 2019 and 2020, long-haul traffic has risen from nine to 1.9 million passengers. Traffic to Europe - including domestic routes - managed to generate 8.1 million passengers. However, this is a far cry from the 36.6 million expected for 2019. EasyJet has nevertheless maintained its leading position at Gatwick. The carrier generated 69 % of total passengers.
Finally, the two airports in the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), London Stansted and ManchesterThe results for Stansted and Stuttgart were fairly similar. Stansted saw its traffic fall by 73.2% to 7.54 million passengers. Traffic was down by 76% at the UK's largest airport outside London. Manchester welcomed just over seven million passengers last year.
