The epicenter of the chaos has shifted to Australia in recent days, with flight delays and cancellations disrupting Sydney and Melbourne airports. Meanwhile, European skies appear to be experiencing a slight respite, despite ongoing chaos and disruption (yesterday, for example, British Airways suspended short-haul ticket sales from Heathrow for a week).
June and July severely tested air travel across Europe, but Italian airports have held up better than others. According to the latest data compiled by ENAC (Italian Civil Aviation Authority), between June 20 and July 24, 3,600 flights departing from Italian airports were canceled, with a peak on the day of the strike, July 17 (377 flights canceled). A significant number, certainly, considering the thousands of people affected and the inconveniences suffered, but overall a modest percentage (1.8% of domestic flights and 3.6% of international flights) compared to those recorded at major European hubs, especially London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.
The Reasons
The causes of this situation are to be found, as is now well known, in the sector's stronger-than-expected recovery: the surge in demand from March onwards caught many airlines and airports themselves unprepared, lacking staff, who had been cut off during the two years of the pandemic. This recovery at Italian airports is confirmed by ENAC data, which recorded 16.6 million passengers in the first half of this year, a volume four times higher than the same period a year ago (+314%). We're not yet at pre-pandemic levels (compared to the first six months of 2019, the number of passengers is still down 23.5%, or approximately 21 million fewer), but the trend seems clear and the recovery is significant, explains ENAC President Pierluigi Di Palma.
So much so that some airports, particularly those in the South, have even surpassed 2019 levels: in June, Bari recorded a 20.4% increase in passengers compared to the same month in 2019 and a 16% increase in the period from July 1 to 15; Naples increased by 9.5% and 8.3%; Palermo by 3.4% and 1.2%. Alghero and Olbia grew by 10% in July compared to the same period in 2019. Bergamo (+1.5% and +12.8%) and Bologna (+1.4% and +1.2%) also performed well.
The Desire to Fly
"We are facing a summer surge that has led to the situation we all know, which is nevertheless moving toward normalization," explains Di Palma. "There remain some problematic episodes, mainly related to strikes, but we expect an improvement compared to July, especially at Italian airports." Beyond the summer surge and the related disruptions, the ENAC president is optimistic: "I have often compared the effects of the pandemic on air transport to those of September 11th," he observes. "Back then, however, we witnessed a rapid and immediate V-shaped recovery, while in this case the recovery is U-shaped."
This is why the forecast of reaching 8 billion global passengers by 2035 (compared to 4.6 billion in 2019) has been confirmed. "We expect a decline in October, but the desire to fly has returned, even if some flows are still missing, particularly to and from China and Russia, with negative effects on airports that used to work extensively with those areas," adds Di Palma.
ENAC notes, in addition to growth in the domestic market, a boom in departures and arrivals from the Americas in the first half of the year and in June, as well as an excellent recovery in traffic to and from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Overall, passengers transported to and from non-European destinations increased by 588%. Di Palma adds, however, a reflection: the recovery is underway, but it is still limited by certain critical factors, such as Covid, the war, and high fuel prices.
Furthermore, some parameters have changed: business traffic has decreased, tourist traffic is increasing, and passengers are on average younger and therefore tend to spend less and favor certain routes over others. Therefore, "the sector's recovery will also be diversified, and this must be taken into account," the president concludes.
