The German Federal Aviation Association found that air traffic fell significantly again in the first half of 2021. The level of 1971 was even reached. The reason for this was travel restrictions that ran through almost the entire first six months.

The main difference to the previous year was that January and February 2020 in Europe were almost not affected by the pandemic. In mid-March 2020, the downturn to almost zero suddenly set in. Air traffic only picked up again at a very modest level at the end of June / beginning of July 2020.

This year, the number of passengers in the first half of the year was 78 percent below the level of 2019. The German airlines were hit particularly hard, as they had to cope with a decline of 85 percent. Matthias von Randow, General Manager of the BDL, said: “We last had so few passengers at German airports in 1971. This development has drastically increased the economic pressure on our companies and their investment power: Sales have plummeted by 63 percent. The number of employees is now 10 percent below the level of 2019. On the positive side, demand has increased significantly since the summer. Since more and more people are now vaccinated and a system of vaccination and test certificates enables safe mobility even under pandemic conditions, tourist travel has increased significantly again. "