As of now, the travel industry in the EU is striving to ensure that it successfully recovers from the pandemic.
On this note, data has revealed that commercial flights have not yet reached the same levels recorded in the summer months of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.
In September of the current year, the European Union reported a sum of 605,806 commercial flights.
This figure was indicative of a 7.9% increase in flight count in comparison to the corresponding period in the previous year.
However, this number remained 8.9% below the number of flights recorded in the same month back in 2019.
Commercial flights
As per the EU office for statistics, namely Eurostat, the months of June, July, and August of the current year showed a consistent upward trend in commercial flights.
In all three months, flight counts showed notable growth in comparison to the same months of the previous year.
Going into details, the office revealed that June registered a 6.9% surge as compared to 2022, while July recorded an increase of 7.6%.
Similarly, the figures for August saw a 6.6% rise when compared to the number of flights of the previous year.
More details
On the other hand, despite the flight count faring better than it was back in 2022, it is still not better off than the levels recorded before the pandemic.
Commercial flights have yet to surpass, or even meet, the flight count registered back in 2019.
Where the figures are concerned, the numbers recorded in June of 2023 are 10.4% less than the figures of 2019.
Meanwhile, the number of commercial flights recorded in July was 9% less than the number registered in the corresponding period in 2019.
Lastly, August showed a shortfall of 8.5% when compared to the number of commercial flights recorded before the pandemic.
Country data
According to Eurostat, in September 2023, a total of six countries managed to surpass flight counts from 2019.
These countries are Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Malta, Ireland, and Cyprus.
Consequently, Eurostat revealed that Greece leads the way, recording an increase of 10.9%, with Portugal close behind with a surge of 9%, as compared to the pre-pandemic levels.
Similarly, Cyprus recorded a surge of 5.9%, Croatia of 2.6%, Ireland of 1.4%, and Malta of 0.7%.
Other countries have also been applauded for their impressive performance in almost reaching the pre-pandemic number of flights as well.
However, there are some countries in the EU that are not even close to exceeding the number of flights that were recorded before the pandemic.
Some of these countries include Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovenia.
Not only have these countries lagged behind in the race to reach the pre-pandemic numbers, but they have recorded significant declines in commercial flight activity.
Latvia has experienced a notable decrease of 30.4%, while Finland has recorded a decline of 30.2%.
Similarly, Estonia’s flight count dropped by 25.4%, Sweden’s by 24.1%, and Slovenia’s by 22.9%.
As of now, various countries are struggling to ensure that commercial flights reach pre-pandemic levels, with Eurostat showing concerns that the aviation industry not trying hard enough.
