The latest figures published by Eurocontrol suggest that the recovery in European air traffic has stalled. The number of flight movements is currently 30 percent below the 2019 level.

The carriers are apparently coming through very differently, because in August 2021 the majority of the movements were accounted for by Ryanair, Wizz Air and Turkish Airlines. Eurocontrol randomly selected September 21, 2021 and compared it with the same day in 2019: Result: 29,7 percent decline. The Anker Report carried out a seven-day analysis and came to a similar conclusion.

It is currently becoming apparent that demand will decrease again. There are various reasons for this, because the months of July and August are traditionally particularly strong, as many people want to spend their summer holidays. Before the corona pandemic, September was more of the “phasing out” of many hot water routes and was particularly popular with the childless and senior citizens. Hotel prices are usually lower in the off-season.

The prospects for autumn and winter are not necessarily rosy, but Eurocontrol does not dare to make a “binding” forecast. The fact that the United States will open up to fully vaccinated people is having a positive impact on demand. According to various survey institutes, the fact that many potential travelers fear border closings, as in the previous year, should have a negative impact. The trend is therefore towards very short-term bookings. However, this is precisely what is problematic for low-cost airlines in particular, since the capacities cannot really be planned.

It is undisputed that the demand in the summer months cannot be compared with that in the autumn and winter. It wasn't noticeably different “before Corona” either. However, the business travelers then traveled a lot again. In this segment, there are signs that business class will continue to be booked more frequently, but quantitatively there are significantly fewer business people on the road. Sales and middle management in particular should continue to use Skype and Co. in many corporations. You don't send out a representative for every customer appointment, no matter how small.

The bottom line is that the demand for some airlines has dropped. Low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and Wizz Air, but also the Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines, are far less affected than, for example, the Air France-KLM Group. For example, the lowcosters are at the top and, for example, Ryanair was around 90 percent of the offer from 2019 in the sample. According to the latest data, there were 2.240 flight movements. In the case of Turkish Airlines, there were 1.113 movements. For comparison: Easyjet was 794, Lufthansa 743, Air France 693, KLM 670, Wizz Air 603, SAS 462, Pegasus 423 and the bottom 10 British Airways had 407 flight movements.