Croatia tops aviation upturn list – Eurostat

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European commercial aviation enjoyed an upturn last month, as the number of flights in the EU climbed 130% year-on-year. While the number of commercial flights was 166,990 in December 2020, the industry saw numbers of 383,720 last month.

Flight volumes were 24% below the pre-pandemic levels in December 2019, when the EU had 504,270 flights. This was the closest that the bloc had got to returning to pre-pandemic levels of commercial aviation to date. The EU country with the lowest fall in commercial flights in December 2021 was Croatia, down just 6% from December 2019. 

It is not yet all good news for the commercial aviation industry, however. According to the EU data agency Eurostat, two of the worst hit EU countries were in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region: Czechia and Austria, who both booked volumes 41% lower than two years earlier. Another two CEE countries followed: Latvia and Slovakia, both down around 30% in relation to air traffic two years earlier.

Some clouds emerged on the horizon even for the EU’s most resilient flight destination, however, as Ryanair yesterday announced plans to cancel five international routes from Zagreb, making that 12 Croatian routes cancelled or cut by the Irish airline already this year.