How crisis altered the global airports picture

With the collapse in global travel last year, the list of busiest airports worldwide has also changed dramatically. Unsurprisingly, with the early recovery of China’s domestic air market, Chinese airports dominate the top ten rankings of airports measured by passenger traffic in 2020, released last week by Airports Council International (ACI) World. Atlanta, for many years the biggest airport in the world in terms of passengers, was overtaken in first place by Guangzhou Bai Yun International (pictured above), despite the latter posting a -40% fall in numbers to 43.8 million. The resurgence of internal Chinese travel propelled the country’s airports to new highs in the rankings, and they now dominate the top ten. Apart from Guangzhou, the list features Chengdu (third), Shenzhen (fifth), Beijing Capital (sixth), Kunming (eighth), Shanghai Hongqiao (ninth) and Xi’an (tenth). DXB (Dubai International) retained its ranking as number one for international traffic, despite a fall of -70.1% in volumes, to 25.8 million. It was followed by Amsterdam and London Heathrow in the top three, though the latter has slipped down the list in the latest figures for early 2021 (see below).

Notable ranking gains in the international top ten came from Istanbul (from 14 to six) amid Turkey’s domestic bounceback, and Hamad International (15 to seven) as Qatar Airways maintained its strong route network through the crisis. Passenger traffic at the world’s airports decreased by -64.6% year-on-year in 2020, with the top ten busiest falling by -45.7% - underlining the lack of a uniform impact or recovery around the world, according to ACI. That uneven picture is set to continue with travel restrictions in many places, and with varying speeds in the roll-out of vaccines to combat the spread of COVID-19. That variance can be seen in the latest (Q1) regional figures for European airport traffic, released by ACI Europe.

EU/EEA/Swiss and UK airports saw their passenger traffic decrease from -85% in January to -89% in March – with their Q1 performance down by -88%. This reflected a ‘third wave’ of COVID-19 infections in many countries, with severe travel restrictions and bans as well as domestic lockdowns. UK airports were especially affected, along with those in countries relying exclusively on international traffic – many now operating with less than 5% of their pre-pandemic passenger traffic levels. Conversely, passenger traffic at airports in Turkey, Russia and other markets improved markedly from -59% in January to -49% in March, with Q1 closing at -54.8%. This is due in large part to airports in Russia and to a lesser extent Turkey and Ukraine, reflecting larger domestic markets combined with less severe lockdowns and travel restrictions. All of this has also radically altered the rankings of top European airports, with a marked shift from west to east. The top five European airports in Q1 all came from Russia and Turkey – with Istanbul Airport (-64%) the busiest European airport, followed by Moscow Domodedovo (-18%), Moscow Sheremetyevo (-60%), Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen (-48%) and Moscow-Vnukovo (-26%). Although Paris CDG (-82%), Madrid (-81%), Frankfurt (-83%) and Amsterdam Schiphol (-87%) still made it in the top ten, London-Heathrow (-91%) did not.