Construction of a new terminal began in Stuttgart, the Federal Administrative Court gave the final go-ahead for work on the new Munich airport, and Lufthansa began training its first female airline pilots. It was in 1986 and German air transport was entering a phase of strong growth.
Until 2020. 1986 is the reference year to which the German Airports Association ADV to describe the traffic levels at its 22 international hubs in 2020. Last year, German airports welcomed 63.12 million passengers. This represents a historic fall of 74,6%. The 2020 figures are therefore lower than the traffic at Frankfurt airport alone in 2019. At that time, the Lufthansa hub handled a record 70.56 million passengers.
In detail, ADV reports that domestic traffic fell by 74.7 % compared with 2019. The European traffic fell by 74.0 %the intercontinental traffic of 77.1 %. Commercial aircraft movements were down by 58.5%. ADV notes that only the summer months saw a slight upturn, sustained by the recovery in ethnic and tourist traffic.
December confirms that passenger traffic is plunging back into crisis. ADV reports that traffic fell by 87% in the last month of the year. It expects similar declines in the first quarter before an upturn in the second. potential summer recovery.
No return to 2019 traffic levels...before 2025
In detail, the two Lufthansa had a catastrophic year. Frankfurt lost 73.4% of its traffic18.77 million passengers. This is equivalent to its traffic level in 1984. Munich fell 76.81TP3Q in passenger numbers. With 11.11 million passengers, the hub has returned to its 1990 traffic levels.
Among the other airports with more than 10 million passengers, Berlin airports recorded a fall of 74.5% (9.1 million passengers), Düsseldorf 74.2% (6.58 million), Hamburg 73.6% (4.56 million), Stuttgart 74.8% (3.2 million) and Cologne/Bonn 75.1% (3.1 million).
The Federal Office of Aviation estimates that traffic could reach 2021 between 90 and 95 million passengers and welcome 189 million passengers by 2022. But a return to 2019 levels (248 million passengers) would not occur before 2025.
The financial situation of airports is likely to be tense. ADV talks of an operating deficit of three billion euros for 2020 and 2021. The German government and the Länder, which generally own the airports, have already promised to help.
But several airports could close as a result. An environmental association, BUND, believes that it is scandalous to bail out certain airports with taxpayers' money. It cites around ten airports that will need subsidies in the long term.
The Paderborn-Lippstadt (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Frankfurt-Hahn are the most financially threatened. As for the new Berlin BERInaugurated without fanfare last October, it will already close terminal 5 at the end of February. What served as the main terminal at the former Schönefeld airport may never reopen.
