Budapest Airport handled 304,000 passengers in July, but still an 81% fall

According to Budapest Airport, Airports Council International (ACI) has published a detailed traffic analysis about European aviation in the first half of 2020. Amongst other things, the report details that traffic recovery during the second half of 2020 is slower than expected, due primarily to the diverse and often changing travel restrictions introduced by the various countries.

ACI: Drastic drop, slow recovery – European aviation in the first half of 2020

The ACI report, issued a few days ago, highlights the disastrous impact of the coronavirus on aviation; European airports registered a 64.2% drop in passenger traffic overall during the first half of 2020, which means losing 969 million passengers. The biggest decrease in traffic came during the second quarter, when passenger numbers were down 96.4% compared to the same period in 2019. Budapest Airport welcomed 2 892 854 passengers during the first half of 2020, which is 60.8% less than in the same period last year.

The coronavirus had a smaller, yet still significant impact on airports outside of Europe; in their case, passenger traffic dropped by 59.8% during the first half of 2020.

The smaller decrease, compared to that experienced by European airports, is primarily attributable to domestic flights, for example in the United States and China, which are not subject to the often different national travel restrictions.