Filenews 14 September 2021
Air traffic in all European Union countries, including Cyprus, remained reduced in August compared to August 2019, due to the pandemic, according to data presented by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, based on data from Eurocontrol.
Although the total number of flights continues to rise across Europe in recent months, it has not yet reached the levels it was at before the pandemic, according to the same figures.
In particular, in August 2021, commercial flights to and from Cyprus were down by 24% compared to August 2019. The decrease on average in the EU over the same period was 31%.
Cyprus is in sixth place among the countries with the lowest flight decline compared to 2019. The lowest decline between August 2019 and August 2021 was recorded in Greece (7%), Romania (18%) and Croatia (22%), followed by Luxembourg (24%) and Malta (24%).
The largest decreases in flights over the same period were recorded in Finland (60%), Ireland (55%), Slovenia (54%), Slovakia (52%) and the Czech Republic (51%).
However, Eurostat data show that a recovery in aviation is underway, as the number of commercial flights increased by 48% in August 2021 compared to August 2020, although it remains down from August 2019 (31%).
In the case of Cyprus, the number of flights in August 2021 compared to August 2020 recorded an increase of 82%, but remains 24% lower than in the period before the pandemic.
In absolute terms, 479 thousand commercial flights were carried out across the EU in August 2021, compared to 325 thousand in August 2020. In August 2019, a total of 696 thousand flights had taken place.
