Traffic recovery after the COVID outbreak has followed the trend forecasted in the previous report, namely a rebound in 2022 followed by a more moderate increase to reach 8.35 million flights at EU27+EFTA airports in 2023 (
), which is still 9% below the 2019 level. While low-cost and mainline carriers had an identical share of total flights in 2019 (one third each), the low-cost market post-COVID recovery was faster and had the largest share in 2023.
The number of passengers recovered faster from COVID than flights, with 774 million passengers flying from EU27+EFTA airports in 2023, which is just 4% below the 2019 level. This is in part due to the high average passenger load factor of 84.5%, which exceeded the previous 2019 record of 83.4%. The average distance per flight also reached a peak in 2023 (1 730 km), such that total passenger-kilometres were close to their pre-COVID level during that year.
After a peak in 2021, the number of cargo flights was back to pre-COVID levels in 2023, although the total tonnes of cargo transported was 5% lower than in 2019. In 2023, business jet operations exceeded the 2019 level by 10% after almost reaching their 2007 record of 700 000 annual flights during 2022. Several bankruptcies and the shift to low-cost airlines or high-speed rail on certain city pairs has driven the reduction in number of flights by regional airlines between 2019 and 2023.
While the COVID outbreak had the greatest impact on aviation over the period 2020-2023, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent airspace closures and operator restrictions have also affected air traffic, with neighbouring airspace absorbing more traffic and diverted flights overloading the busy South-East axis. In addition, the EU sanctions have hindered the recovery of traffic between Europe and Asia. Since October 2023, the conflict in the Middle East has also had an impact on air traffic flows, especially overflights, and there has been a significant increase in military operations within European airspace.