ACI Europethe organisation of European airports, has just published its air traffic report for March and the first quarter of 2024. With the upturn in traffic trends, the association has revised its passenger traffic forecast for 2024 as a whole.
Passenger traffic at European airports rose by +10.2% in March compared with the same month last year. Most of this growth came from international passenger traffic (+11.7%). This is more than double the growth in passenger traffic on domestic routes (+5.6%).
With this result, passenger traffic is now very close to its March 2019 level. It is just 1.5 % below pre-pandemic volumes.. As has been the case since the beginning of the year, the number of international passengers exceeded pre-pandemic volumes (+2.7 1TP3Q). This is in sharp contrast to domestic traffic, which remains well below pre-Covid levels (-13.2 %).
Airports in the south are the most dynamic
Within the European Union, thehe biggest increases compared with March 2023 were recorded by airports in the Czech Republic (+32.6%), Malta (+30%) and Slovenia (+22.7%).. On the other handThe weakest performances were recorded by airports in Sweden (-1.2%), Norway (+0.3%) and Finland (+2.5%).
Compared with March 2019, the results look less encouraging, with many markets still lacking momentum. This is particularly true of airports in Slovakia (-34.9%), Slovenia (-27.8%), Sweden (-27%), Finland (-24.4%) and Germany (-22.9%).. Traffic at airports in the United Kingdom and France are also downThe first two were -2% and the second -6.4%.
Airports in the Mediterranean Basin, on the other hand, recorded the best performance over the same period. Malta (+32.5%), Portugal (+23.1%), Greece (+19.6%), Spain (+14.5%) and Italy (+8%).
Also worth noting the excellent performance of polish airportsup 19.2%. In addition to the dynamism of the Polish economy, the growth in traffic is also due to a postponement of air activity in Ukraine (whose airspace remains closed) to airports close to the border.
First-quarter results were on a par with March, passenger traffic on the European network also increased by +10.2% compared with the same quarter of the previous year. It is only 1.3% lower than in the first quarter of 2019.
According to Olivier Jankovec, Managing Director of ACI EuropePassenger traffic continued to grow dynamically in the first three months of the year. Demand for air travel generally remained strong against a backdrop of modest improvement in macroeconomic conditions in the European Union and the United Kingdom".
He continued: " we have revised upwards our traffic forecasts for the year as a whole. We now believe that the number of passengers in 2024 will exceed pre-pandemic volumes (2019) by +3.2 % - instead of +1.4 % previously. This reflects a positive outlook for the summer season. Demand is expected to remain strong as consumers continue to favour travel despite much higher air fares. It also reflects sustained but selective capacity expansion by very low-cost carriers. Whereas the major traditional carriers are finally approaching their pre-pandemic capacity levels" .
However, Olivier Jankovec urges caution. "The market remains highly fragmented in terms of traffic performance. Only 43 % of European airports have already recovered their pre-pandemic passenger volumes. Downside risks remain, due in particular to geopolitics and supply pressures".
