As compared to 2019, the year before COVID-19, there has been a decline in domestic flights within Germany.

This is applicable in terms of both the number of passengers and the number of flights, which means the overall air traffic has declined considerably.

The data

The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) revealed that of the total 715,500 flights that originated from major German airports, 20.6% of them were bound for destinations within the country.

This was applicable in the period between January and October last year. Of the total 84.3 million air travelers, 11.4% of them were traveling within the country in the same period.

The current data is quite similar to what had been seen in 2022, with 11.0% of domestic passengers and 21.5% of domestic flights taking place within the country between January and October.

The data also showed that of the 942,100 flights in Germany during 2019, about 26.7% of them were domestic.

Meanwhile, of the 107.2 million passengers who left Germany, 18.3% of them were traveling to domestic destinations.

Destatis shared more data showing that the number of passengers showed an even more pronounced decline.

Almost one-fifth, or 18.3% of passengers between January and October 2019, who left Germany were headed to domestic countries.

In addition, a distance of 311 kilometers was covered on average by domestic flights last year, while international flights covered a distance of a staggering 1,966 kilometers.

Traveling abroad

A major portion of air travelers from Germany were heading to destinations abroad. Of the 9.6 million domestic passengers between January and October 2023, 28.2% transferred to international flights.

This means that a total of 2.7 million passengers were traveling abroad. As compared to the same period in 2019, this marked an increase of 17%.

This highlighted the evolving nature of patterns of domestic air travel. A 1.9% decrease was also recorded in the number of people staying in accommodations in Germany.

This decrease was recorded in August 2023 as compared to the figures seen in 2022. 57.1 million overnight stays were reported by German accommodation providers in the same month.

This included both international and domestic guests. It was a 1.9% drop from August 2022 and a 1.3% drop from August 2019.

More numbers

The figures from Destatis showed that in August 2023, the total number of overnight stays by domestic guests stood at 47.6 million, which was a 3.4% decline as compared to August 2022.

But, in comparison with August 2019, this was actually an increase of 1% in the total number of beds recorded.