Revised forecast sees air travel bouncing back to pre-COVID levels in 2024
ACI EUROPE has published its August 2023 air traffic report along with an updated five-year forecast, underscoring the continued resilience of passenger demand, as well as the structural changes in the aviation market.
Passenger traffic across the European airport network in August stood at just -3.4% compared to pre-pandemic levels, a similar result to the one achieved in July 2023 (–3%).
Taking stock of the strong performance of passenger traffic over the Summer and the continued resilience of demand, despite lasting inflationary pressures, persistently higher air fares and increased geopolitical tensions, ACI EUROPE now predicts:
- Passenger traffic in 2023 reaching 95.5% of pre-pandemic volumes (2019), up from 91% in its previous forecast (December 2022).
- A full passenger traffic recovery in 2024, compared to 2025 in the previous forecast. Accordingly, passenger traffic at Europe’s airports is set to stand at +1.4% over pre-pandemic (2019) levels in 2024 (rather than -2% as per the previous forecast).
- Passenger traffic by 2027 at +9.2% over pre-pandemic (2019) levels – only marginally higher than in the previous forecast (+9%).
However, ACI EUROPE has cautioned that behind these positive network-wide figures, airports across Europe will continue to report significant variations in their passenger traffic performance, with some expecting to recover to pre-pandemic levels much later than the industry average.
