Passenger Traffic Full Recovery Not Expected to Be Reached Until 2025

Through its most recent revised passenger traffic forecast, which has been published today, December 20, ACI Europe showed that passenger volumes in the next year are set to decrease by nine per cent compared to 2019, and highlighted that the full recovery has been pushed back to 2025 instead of 2024, as previously forecasted, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

Commenting on the forecast, the Director General of ACI Europe, Olivier Jankovec, said that passenger traffic has made a strong comeback since the spring of last year, and at the same time, stressed that the airlines will miss around 220 million in 2023.

“Passenger traffic has made a strong comeback since last Spring and has so far been very resilient in the face of increasing geopolitical and economic headwinds. However, we now expect the passenger traffic recovery to level off moving forwards, with the timeline pushed to 2025 before Europe’s airports finally get back to where they stood before COVID-19 hit,” the statement of Jankovec reads.

Additionally, Jankovec stressed that such a forecast reflects a mix of determinants, with the negative ones being more prominent than the positive ones.

According to ACI Europe, the war in Ukraine and the geopolitical tensions will continue to have a negative impact on markets. Moreover, it has been emphasised that declining inflationary pressures and macroeconomics are expected to negatively affect demand.

ACI Europe further highlights that higher regulatory costs will also give rise to sustained inflationary pressures on airfares.

In addition to the above-mentioned, ACI Europe said that it expects the impact of negative determinants to be partially compensated by continued expansion of Ultra-Low Cost carriers and resilience in leisure demand.

Despite the risks, Jankovec stressed that several markets, especially the ones that rely on tourism, are expected to exceed the passenger volumes registered during the pre-pandemic period as soon as next year. At the same time, it pointed out that many others will take a longer time before they fully recover.

Jankovec further concluded that once the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic have disappeared, the airport located in Europe will face higher risk levels and said that ACI Europe regulators will reflect on this.