Impact of COVID-19 “hits FAB CE States hardest of all European regions"

Airline traffic levels in the seven FAB CE States were on average close to 70% lower between March 1 2021 and March 1 2019 according to the latest figures from Eurocontrol, making this area of Europe the hardest hit, in terms of aviation activity, of any region in the continent.

Prague ATC Centre (with traffic declines of 77.6% measured at the start of March 2021 across a weekly average in 2019) and Bratislava (down 71.5%) measured for the same period, have been particularly badly impacted. These traffic declines have meant the FAB CE region has also recorded the biggest reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of any region in Europe – an average of 70% against a continental average of 56.9% decline (see table below).

Traffic is likely to decline further over the next few months due to the latest waves of COVID and new stricter travel restrictions imposed by States on non-essential travel. Most forecasters say the speed and strength of the eventual recovery will depend on the pace of the vaccine roll-out.

“But Eurocontrol recovery forecasts suggest that even with the vaccine programme rolled out across all of Europe by the end of 2022, traffic will have recovered to just 92% of 2019 levels by the end of 2024,” said Matej Eljon, FAB CE Programme Manager and Director of FAB CE Aviation Ltd. “For FAB CE, where the pandemic has lowered demand for air travel probably more than in any other region, it is vital that the recovery, when it comes, is properly coordinated to ensure we provide capacity to our customers exactly when they need and in the most cost-effective and environmentally sustainable ways.”