Daily air traffic at Portuguese airports has been dropping in recent days, given the pandemic of covid-19, and reached a year-on-year drop of 87% on Wednesday, according to data from the European organization Eurocontrol.
Data from the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol), this Wednesday, consulted by the Lusa agency, indicate that the daily air traffic in the airports of the continent – Lisbon, Porto and Faro – has been dropping sharply since the middle of this month, when countries began to adopt more restrictive measures to try to contain the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak.
If on 16 March there was a 16.6% drop in daily air traffic compared to the same day in 2019, this decrease was 39% the next day and 52.4% three days later.
Last Sunday, the year-on-year falls were already 63% and continued to increase on Monday (76.8%) and Tuesday (78.8%), reaching a peak of 87% on Wednesday market.
This latter percentage compares with a drop of around 80% in the European average.
According to Eurocontrol data, also on Wednesday, TAP was one of the companies in Europe with the largest annual drop in daily air traffic, of 93.3%, only surpassed by companies such as Vueling (94%), Ryanair (95 %), Brussels Airlines (98%) and easyJet (100%).
As far as airports are concerned, on Wednesday there was a 90.9% reduction in daily traffic, followed by Lisbon (88.7%) and Faro (83.3%).
The trend observed in Portugal has also been registered at European level, and there are currently – and according to Wednesday’s figures – about 5,800 flights a day being carried out in Europe, a number that compares with close to 22 thousand flights performed in the same day of 2019.
At the monthly level, in this month of March (from the beginning until now) there are already 23% year-on-year drops in air traffic at Portuguese airports, as well as a 29.4% reduction in the operations carried out by TAP, compared to the previous year. same period of 2019, according to Eurocontrol.
The Association of European Airlines (A4E), which represents 16 major aviation groups, including TAP, Air France-KLM, Ryanair and easyJet and more than 70% of the European sector, explains in a written reply sent to Lusa that “ flights operated yesterday [quarta-feira] represent about 20% of normal levels ”, noting that this has been a trend that has worsened in recent days.
“Airlines are currently focused on preserving their liquidity and repatriating passengers stranded abroad,” says the association, recalling that around 178 countries in the world have already established travel restrictions.
At the same time, “air cargo or charter operations are being carried out to guarantee the flow of goods, […] which are particularly important for the delivery of medical equipment ”, says A4E.
Also today, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated losses in excess of 70 billion euros (76 billion dollars) in passenger revenues for European airlines in 2020, which are among the most affected in the world by the pandemic of covid-19.
After the Asian continent, which is expected to record losses of 81 billion euros ($ 88 billion), Europe is the biggest drop in passenger revenues, with a total loss of 207 billion euros (225 billion dollars) in industry worldwide.
A4E says, in the response given to Lusa, that the routes most affected “started out being China, but now the impact is global”, which ends up “reaching all airlines”.
“We are already in a great crisis”, regrets the association, recalling having already asked the European Union Transport Ministers for measures such as safeguarding minimum levels of operation, creating stimulus and support packages for the aeronautical sector and more flexible rules in the on passenger rights.
Altogether, air carriers in Europe generate 2.6 million direct jobs and 12.2 million indirect jobs.
The new coronavirus, responsible for the covid-19 pandemic, has already infected nearly 480,000 people in 182 countries and territories, of which more than 22,000 have died.
To try to contain the outbreak, EU governments are adopting measures such as the confinement of citizens and the closure or control of borders, and a suspension of non-essential travel (including air travel) has also been adopted.
–
