Light rebound in passenger numbers for Antwerp Airport in July (-66% compared to 2019)

After a period of almost four months, the scheduled flights of TUI fly Belgium from Antwerp Airport were finally able to resume. The airport was very excited to resume commercial activities. TUI fly restarted on 10 July 2020 with an adjusted and limited summer programme, which therefore had an impact on passenger numbers.

In the past month, Antwerp airport allowed 11,222 passengers to travel safely. This is still 66% less compared to 32,958 passengers in July 2019. A number of factors are causing this decrease. For example, TUI fly’s summer programme is currently limited to Spanish and Croatian destinations. The other destinations have not yet been restarted. In addition, Air Antwerp decided to restart the London City route only in September 2020. From then on, Air Antwerp will again provide a morning and evening connection so that both business and leisure travellers can easily travel to London.

The number of movements increased slightly by 3% to 3,678. We notice an increase of 5% in the number of business flights. The number of passengers on business flights also rose by 10%.

If we look at the number of passengers on the commercial scheduled services, we notice a 75% decrease compared to 2019. These results are in line with all other major European airports. Over the period January to July, we notice a decrease in the number of passengers by 61% to 63,996 compared to 165,031 in 2019.

The number of passengers for the following months will be mainly affected by three factors: the evolution of the coronavirus, consumer confidence and border policy. These variables make it very difficult for the airport to estimate how passenger numbers and the number of flights will evolve. The airport follows these trends closely so that necessary and appropriate measures can be taken quickly to limit the impact on the results.

Wednesday, August 5, 2020