To prevent the spread of COVID-19, countries around the world have taken a variety of restrictive measures since the beginning of 2020. The air transport industry was severely hit.
In 2020, the total number of passengers travelling by air in the EU was 277 million, a substantial decrease of 73% compared with 2019.
This information comes from data on air transport published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
All Member States registered large drops in 2020 compared with 2019. The highest fall was observed for Slovenia (-83%), followed by Slovakia and Croatia (both -82%). Among the remaining EU Member States, 20 recorded a decline of 70% or more over the same period. The four remaining Member States registered drops of more than 65%, with the lowest decrease being observed for Luxembourg (-67%).
Share of extra and intra-EU air transport decreased while national increased
Extra-EU passenger transport represented 45% of total air passenger transport in 2020. On the other hand, intra-EU transport represented 33% and national transport represented 22%. Compared with 2019, the share of extra-EU and intra-EU transport decreased by 6 and 1 percentage points in 2020, to the benefit of national transport.
To mark the International Civil Aviation Day (7 December), Eurostat invites you to click on the image below to access an interactive visualisation on air passenger transport in 2020. You can select airports from the map or the list to discover the top 5 routes, number of flights, number of passengers and national/international traffic in 2020.
For more information:
- Eurostat Statistics Explained article on air transport statistics
- Eurostat overview on transport
- Eurostat database on transport
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