Under 20 million, down almost 70% due to Covid -19 air traffic last year
At 30 years ago, air traffic was formed in 2020 at Greek airports due to Covid-19, while the beginning of 2021 is more than gloomy due to lockdown and travel restrictions.
According to the data published by the Civil Aviation Service for the twelve months of last year, the total air passenger traffic (domestic – international) of 2020 in Greece ranged below the psychological limit of 20 million and specifically to 19.7 million passengers, down 69.3%.
The data of the big reduction, as a result of Covid-19 disease and the measures to restrict the movements that have been imposed worldwide, show that our country returned to passenger traffic levels 30 years ago, specifically in the distant 1991 when 19.59 million passengers were transported. at the airports of Greece! December 2020 was the tenth consecutive month last year where statistics from all airports in the country showed a negative trend as a result of the pandemic, while the two months January-February 2020 had started with a significant increase.
In particular, the statistics of the CAA for the passenger traffic of the airports in the twelve months of 2020 show the following:
– The total number of passenger passengers reached, as mentioned above, 19.7 million, showing a decrease of 69.3% compared to the corresponding period of 2019 where 64.1 million passengers were transported. In terms of flights at the country’s airports were reduced by almost half, to 240,398, of which 119,317 were domestic and 121,081 international, showing a decrease of 46.4% compared to the corresponding period of 2019 where 448,600 flights were operated.
For the month of December alone, there was an 85% reduction in total passenger traffic (domestic – international) since only 376 thousand passengers were handled. In December 2019, the year of Greek tourism records, the number of passengers handled at Greek airports had exceeded 2.5 million. The total number of flights decreased to 9,722, recording a drop (-) of 58.6% compared to the corresponding during 2019 where 23,509 flights were operated. Regarding the arrivals of foreign passengers, it was 88,744, showing a decrease (-) of 88.1% compared to 2019, where 743,014 passengers had arrived.
It should be noted that based on the data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) yesterday, it seems that this winter will be the most difficult in the history of the industry, especially since the endurance of aviation and airports after ten months of continuous decline is limited. Indicative is the fact that IATA, states that internationally for the first quarter of 2021 air bookings appear reduced by more than 80% compared to the same period last year.
The effect of the pandemic on the 14 regional airports in Fraport: -71.4% traffic in 2020 71.4% reduced traffic at 14 regional airports in Fraport Greece in 2020.
At the 14 airports run by the company last year, 8.61m euros were transferred. passengers, for 30,15 million in 2019, which means the losses amounted to EUR 21,54 million. passengers.
In the 12 months of 2020, Thessaloniki airport fell by 66.4%, Rhodes airport Diagoras by 72% and Corfu airport cfu by 70.7%, while Mytilene airport was the one with the lowest percentage reduction (58.5%).
In December, traffic rose to 102,623, down from 697,026 in December 2019, down by 85.3%.
At the level of flights, in 2020, flights amounted to 101,007 as against 245,548, a drop of 58.9%.