“Paris has surpassed Heathrow for the first time as Europe’s largest airport, and Frankfurt and Amsterdam are rapidly gaining ground,” Heathrow CEO John Holland-KA said in a statement on Wednesday.
In the first nine months of the year, Charles de Gaulle welcomed 19.27 million passengers, compared to Heathrow’s 18.97 million, Amsterdam’s Schiphol’s 17.6 million and Frankfurt International’s 16.16 million.
From December 1, the government plans to introduce testing for travelers from “high-risk” countries, Heathrow said.
The airport now expects only 22.6 million passengers this year, down from 81 million in 2019. It has also cut two parts of its forecast for next year, from 62.8 million in June to just 37.1 million passengers.
“The decline is due to the second wave of Covid and the slow progress of testing by the UK government to reopen the borders of ‘high-risk’ countries,” Heathrow said. It posted a loss of ૧ 1.5 billion (.9 1.9 billion) in the first nine months of the year, but said it had enough cash reserves for the next 12 months, even if it did not generate revenue.
Airports Council International (ACI) Europe said on Tuesday that passenger traffic at Europe’s airports in September was down% below the same month last year.
The trade body warned in a statement that about 200 European airports could face bankruptcy if passenger traffic does not begin to recover by the end of the year.
ACI Europe said the people at risk are mainly regional airports, which support 277,000 jobs and contribute 12 12.4 billion (14 14.7 billion) to GDP, ACI Europe said.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said earlier this week that travel would not be fully restored unless the government standardized the testing system. Quarantine requirements hurt the number of passengers, he told CNN Business in an interview with ‘John Deftarios’, as people don’t want to spend 14 days on their own after arriving at their destination.
The outlook for the global aviation industry has deteriorated significantly since the summer, as governments have banned lockdowns and travel amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases.
The International Air Transport Association, which represents the major airlines, said on Tuesday it expects industry revenue to be 46% next year, down from the the 8 billion 2019 figure.
Earlier it had predicted a 29% reduction but said travel restrictions and new covid eruptions would slow recovery recovery.
“Even if we reduce our prices, we will not have an economically sustainable industry in 2021,” IATA CEO Alexandre de Junique said in a statement. “Without additional government economic relief, the average airline has only 8.5 months of cash outstanding at the current burn rate.”
– Chris Liacos and John Defitero contributed to the report.
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