According to the Report, the COVID-19 outbreak reduced the number of passengers at the world’s airports by more than 5.6 billion in 2020 and is forecast to remove an additional 4.6 billion passengers by the end of 2021, compared to 2019 volumes.
Global passenger traffic in 2021 is expected to reach only half of what it was in 2019, totalling only 4.6 billion of the 9.2 billion passengers served two years ago.
The world’s airports also saw a sharp reduction in global aircraft movements in 2020, decreasing by 39.5% to reach only 62 million.
The pandemic, however, had a less severe impact on global air cargo volume, largely driven by the requirement for personal protective equipment (PPE) and the increase in online retail.
Nevertheless, global air cargo declined by 9.6% in 2020 compared to 2019, with 108 million tonnes handled in 2020.
Global passenger traffic: domestic traffic leading recovery
Due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions worldwide, domestic passenger traffic continues its trend from 2020 into 2021 of recovering faster than the international market—especially in China and in the US, the latter being the world’s largest domestic market.
Globally, domestic traffic will continue to increase in 2021 to reach more than 3.1 billion passengers by the end of the year, a level corresponding to 58.5% of that achieved in 2019.
The US is now home to only three of the top 10 busiest airports in the world, Chinese airports filling the seven other top positions in 2020.
Traffic at Atlanta (ATL)—which had been the world leader for passenger traffic since 2000—fell 61.2% in 2020, causing it to cede the top spot to Guangzhou (CAN) as the world’s busiest airport for passengers.
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), the world’s tenth-busiest airport in 2019, moved up to fourth-busiest in 2020.
Before the pandemic, four of the ten busiest airports in Asia-Pacific were Chinese airports. As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and then the rapid recovery of its domestic passenger market, seven airports in China now reside in the top 10, six of them new to the list.
Many Asia-Pacific international hubs suffered major losses due to their dependence on international passenger traffic and did not make the top 10 in 2020, such as Beijing (PEK), the busiest airport in 2019, and Tokyo (HND), the second-busiest airport in 2019.
The Asia-Pacific region covers a sizeable geographical area, however, and has recently shown some signs of a slower than expected recovery.
This is due to many countries remaining closed to international travel, inevitably impacting all regions—as Asia-Pacific has been the main region driving growth in the global air transport industry over the last decade.
