Small regional airports are particularly at risk.
Nearly two hundred European airports face insolvency in the coming months if passenger air traffic does not recover at the end of the year. This was stated today by the association of European airports ACI Europe. It considers 193 airports to be endangered, which contributed EUR 12.4 billion (CZK 339.1 billion) to gross domestic product (GDP) in Europe and which created 277,000 jobs.
Small regional airports, which handle no more than five million passengers a year and whose closure would have a huge impact on the local labor market, are at particular risk, an association spokeswoman told Reuters.
In the same way, however, larger European airports are losing unsustainable cash. The debt of the twenty largest increased by 16 billion euros (over 437 billion CZK). This amount corresponds to almost 60 percent of their sales in the current year.
“Data released today shows a very dismal picture. All European airports are losing money after eight months of crisis, just to stay open. Revenues are far from covering operating costs, let alone capital costs, “ pointed out the CEO of ACI Europe Olivier Jankovec.
The volume of passenger air traffic at European airports fell by 73 percent year on year in September, with 172.5 million fewer passengers. Since January, the number of passengers has been lower by 1.29 billion year on year.
ACI Europe represents more than 500 of Europe’s 740 airports serving paying passengers.
ČTK
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