Ireland had smallest air passenger growth in EU last year

 

Ireland had the smallest growth in air passengers out of all EU countries last year, figures from the statistics agency, Eurostat have revealed.

Compared with the previous year, Ireland had an increase of just 10% in air passenger traffic, increasing from 8.27m people in 2020 to just under 9.1m in 2021.

In total, 1.04bn passengers travelled by air throughout the EU in 2019, compared to just 373m in 2021, with the statistic agency warning that "recovery was still far away." 

While Ireland reported the smallest growth, Greece, Cyprus and Croatia saw increases in air passengers of 86%, 105% and 129% respectively. Finland was the only country to experience negative growth in air passenger traffic, falling by 16% between 2020 and 2021 despite the easing of pandemic restrictions.

While post-Covid passenger growth improved further in 2022, the autumn and winter months saw a stall in recovery, with October of this year seeing air traffic across Europe at -12% compared to the same month in 2019.

Figures from Airports Council International (ACI) also reported recovery of varying degrees on a country basis, with Ireland's air traffic falling by 5.9% in October 2022 compared to the same period in pre-Covid 2019.

While longer tourism seasons and low-cost carriers supported recovery, the effects of the war in Ukraine and deteriorating macroeconomics were cited by ACI Europe Director General, Olivier Jankovec as the key challenges facing the market.

"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."

"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.”

Despite these challenges, Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Willie Walsh has insisted that airlines will be back in profit in 2023.

While the trade association had not previously issued earning forecasts for next year, speaking in Geneva this week, Director Walsh said, "I’m optimistic going into 2023. The headwinds we foresee are significant, but they are business-as-usual headwinds.”