The traffic balance of the year 2021 at Munich Airport is still strongly influenced by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic: The number of passengers rose by 1,4 million or more than twelve percent compared to the previous year to a total of 12,5 million passengers. However, with this volume of passengers, the airport only achieved a little more than a quarter of its record result from the pre-crisis year 2019.
The traffic development in 2021 will be positive over the course of the year. From the summer onwards, due to the elimination of many restrictions in international travel, there was a strong increase in demand. While only 2,2 million passengers were counted at Munich Airport in the first six months, there were already 10,3 million passengers in the second half of the year. In the busiest month alone - October 2021 - just as many travelers were registered as in the entire first half of the year.
A comparison of the December results from 2020 and 2021 also shows how quickly air traffic can recover after the removal of travel restrictions: While only 2020 passengers were counted in Munich in December 245.000, a year later there were already 1,5 million passengers more than six times as many. A total of around 2021 take-offs and landings were carried out in 153.000. This is 6.000 flight movements or over four percent more than in the previous year. Air freight increased significantly compared to 2020, in particular due to a significant increase in so-called all-freight traffic. A total of 22.000 tons more air freight was handled than in the previous year. The freight volume increased by almost 15 percent to a total of 167.000 tons.
"As soon as the pandemic situation allows, people will want to travel again. This unbroken demand also makes us confident about the new year. Even if the coming weeks will be difficult given the expected effects of the Omicron variant, we see good prospects in the summer flight schedule period that flight availability and passenger demand will increase significantly again," said Jost Lammers, CEO of Munich Airport GmbH.