Rome: Air traffic is booming this summer, but will passenger demand keep up after the European holidays are over?
This question was the focus of the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe annual conference in Rome this week, to be held at the end of the coming peak season.
The summer period is shaping up to be the best ever since the start of the coronavirus crisis that has hit the airline industry badly since 2020.
some airlines, such as RyanairAnd countries, especially Greece, have already recovered or exceeded their 2019 daily flight numbers, according to EurocontrolA pan-European air traffic agency.
Eurocontrol said air traffic across the continent, last week, was up 86 percent from the same period in 2019, and is expected to reach 95 percent in August under its most optimistic estimate.
And companies are filling seats for the coming weeks despite a sharp rise in ticket prices, long lines in various airports from Frankfurt to Dublin to Amsterdam, and strikes by flight attendants, pilots or air traffic controllers.
But after that?
“Visibility is low because there is so much uncertainty,” said Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe.
“We are now in a war economy in Europe, we have the prospect of a fairly drastic recession, we have inflation at record levels, so how will all this play into consumer sentiment… the jury is still out.”
Director General for Transport and Mobility The European CommissionHeinrich hololiechoed that idea.
“We really need to tighten the seatbelts because there’s going to be a lot of unrest,” he told delegates.
“We are entering an era of uncertainty that we have never experienced in the past decade. And that is certainly the worst enemy of business,” he said.
Hololy listed the war in Ukraine, high energy prices and shortages of energy, food and labour.
“We also have interest rates that are rising for the first time in a decade,” he said.
The price of jet fuel has more than doubled in the past year, fueled by an explosion in crude oil prices coupled with a lack of refinery capacity.
Fuel accounts for nearly a quarter of airlines’ operating costs, which have cost consumers their ticket prices as they seek to replenish coffers drawn from a two-year health crisis.
Nevertheless, strong demand is back, confirmed Eleni Coloiro, managing director of Hermes Airportwhich manages the airports of Larnaca and Paphos in Cyprus, where the high tourist season extends until November.
“People want to take their vacations,” she said, although admitting, “we worry about next year”.
The general manager of Athens International Airport, Yiannis Paraschis, similarly expressed fears that “increased energy costs and inflation would consume a large proportion of European households’ disposable income”.
The head of Istanbul International Airport, Kadri Samsanlu, expressed concern about the impact of inflation in Western Europe.
And if consumer confidence is damaged, “we don’t know what’s going to happen to demand,” he warned.
The last unknown hanging on European air travel in the medium term is a potential new outbreak of coronavirus.
“Covid has not disappeared, and it is not even the seasonal flu,” warned Hololy.
This question was the focus of the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe annual conference in Rome this week, to be held at the end of the coming peak season.
The summer period is shaping up to be the best ever since the start of the coronavirus crisis that has hit the airline industry badly since 2020.
some airlines, such as RyanairAnd countries, especially Greece, have already recovered or exceeded their 2019 daily flight numbers, according to EurocontrolA pan-European air traffic agency.
Eurocontrol said air traffic across the continent, last week, was up 86 percent from the same period in 2019, and is expected to reach 95 percent in August under its most optimistic estimate.
And companies are filling seats for the coming weeks despite a sharp rise in ticket prices, long lines in various airports from Frankfurt to Dublin to Amsterdam, and strikes by flight attendants, pilots or air traffic controllers.
But after that?
“Visibility is low because there is so much uncertainty,” said Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe.
“We are now in a war economy in Europe, we have the prospect of a fairly drastic recession, we have inflation at record levels, so how will all this play into consumer sentiment… the jury is still out.”
Director General for Transport and Mobility The European CommissionHeinrich hololiechoed that idea.
“We really need to tighten the seatbelts because there’s going to be a lot of unrest,” he told delegates.
“We are entering an era of uncertainty that we have never experienced in the past decade. And that is certainly the worst enemy of business,” he said.
Hololy listed the war in Ukraine, high energy prices and shortages of energy, food and labour.
“We also have interest rates that are rising for the first time in a decade,” he said.
The price of jet fuel has more than doubled in the past year, fueled by an explosion in crude oil prices coupled with a lack of refinery capacity.
Fuel accounts for nearly a quarter of airlines’ operating costs, which have cost consumers their ticket prices as they seek to replenish coffers drawn from a two-year health crisis.
Nevertheless, strong demand is back, confirmed Eleni Coloiro, managing director of Hermes Airportwhich manages the airports of Larnaca and Paphos in Cyprus, where the high tourist season extends until November.
“People want to take their vacations,” she said, although admitting, “we worry about next year”.
The general manager of Athens International Airport, Yiannis Paraschis, similarly expressed fears that “increased energy costs and inflation would consume a large proportion of European households’ disposable income”.
The head of Istanbul International Airport, Kadri Samsanlu, expressed concern about the impact of inflation in Western Europe.
And if consumer confidence is damaged, “we don’t know what’s going to happen to demand,” he warned.
The last unknown hanging on European air travel in the medium term is a potential new outbreak of coronavirus.
“Covid has not disappeared, and it is not even the seasonal flu,” warned Hololy.