ACI: 6000 air routes in Europe have vanished

This year’s report highlights the harsh reality of more than 6000 air routes previously operated from Europe’s airports still not being restored 9 months into the COVID-19 crisis

ACI EUROPE has published its 2020 Airport Industry Connectivity Report, with the findings exposing the systemic collapse of the aviation network and air connectivity due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Published yearly since 2014, these reports do not measure passenger volumes but the extent to which Europe’s airports and their communities are connected to and accessible from the rest of our continent and the world – using a set of direct, indirect, and hub connectivity indexes.

This year’s report highlights the harsh reality of more than 6000 air routes previously operated from Europe’s airports still not being restored 9 months into the COVID-19 crisis.

EU/UK airports have been the hardest hit, with their direct connectivity almost disappearing in April, then experiencing a weak recovery over the peak summer month of August at -55% before falling again as of September (-62%).

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Amongst larger EU/UK airports, the sharpest decreases in direct connectivity were registered by Madrid-Barajas (-71%), Rome-Fiumicino (-70%), Munich (-68%), London-Heathrow (-68%), and Frankfurt (-67%) as of September. Meanwhile, smaller regional airports have often seen their direct connectivity even more decimated as evidenced by Linz (-96%), Treviso (-95%), Vaasa (-91%), Quimper (-87%), Newquay (-86%), Shannon (-83%) and Burgas (-82%).

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