European airports trade body ACI Europe has released a revised passenger traffic forecast for the European airport network, showing passenger volumes in 2023 are set to fall -9% below 2019 levels.
As a result, a full recovery has now been pushed back to 2025 – rather than 2024 as previously forecast in May 2022.
ACI predicted continued geopolitical tensions and the war in Ukraine will keep impacting several national markets and dominate downside risks.
Deteriorating macro-economics and inflationary pressures are also set to weigh on demand, with air fares having increased sharply throughout Q3 and Q4 20221.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, said: "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.
"Next year, we will still miss 220 million passengers, meaning our volumes will only match 2017 levels."
