From Frankfurt to Heathrow, European hubs on the road to recovery

Comparison is not reason for Europe's main airports, which are still looking nostalgically at the statistics from 2019. On the road to recovery, these international hubs are making progress, and prefer to look ahead to 2022 for a more flattering benchmark. With respectively 79 million and 59.4 million passengers recorded last year, London Heathrow and Frankfurt have undeniably taken a step towards this "return to normal". Germany's main airport posted an increase of 21.3%, but this resulted in traffic that was still well below 2019 volumes (15.9%).

However, as the platform manager points out, this result is part of a 2023, which was regularly disrupted : " 2023 was another difficult year for the aviation sector, particularly in Europe"says Stefan Schulte. The Fraport CEO explains: "In addition to the ongoing war in Ukraine, airspace restrictions have also been imposed as a result of theAir Defender exerciseNATO conducted Germany. The complex and interconnected international air traffic system was also disrupted by a number of strikes throughout 2023, including walkouts by French air traffic controllers. Despite these negative effects, and in a mutual effort with our system partners, we managed to further stabilise operations at Frankfurt last year. Our traffic results for 2023 clearly show that demand is recovering from the Covid-19 flu pandemic and that the desire to travel remains strong. I am therefore optimistic for the new year 2024." .

On theHeathrowThe results are decidedly positive. And that's thanks in no small part to a particularly busy month of December - and especially the festive season. More than 6.6 million passengers walked the aisles of London airport last month. This brings the annual total to 79 million passengers, compared with 80.9 million in 2019This was a record year for Heathrow.

The management of the London airport, which claims to be a 4th largest platform in the worldThe year 2023 will be remembered in particular for the fact that two routes passed the one million annual passenger mark. The routes Heathrow-Boston and Heathrow-Geneva join the 22 other most popular destinations at the London hub - including Paris-CDG. New York's JFK alone topped the 3 million passenger mark last year, demonstrating the dominant role of the transatlantic routes in Heathrow traffic.

" As we enter the New Year, I would like to sincerely thank all our colleagues and partners at Team Heathrow for their hard and successful work over the busy festive period, which went very well in terms of service and operations."Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye is delighted.By ending 2023 on a high note, we are laying a solid foundation for 2024, when Heathrow will continue to develop and facilitate the UK's global growth potential." continues Thomas Woldbye.