Luxembourg recorded one of the smallest decreases in flights compared to prepandemic levels.  anthony Dehez

Luxembourg recorded one of the smallest decreases in flights compared to prepandemic levels.  anthony Dehez

An overall increase of commercial flights of 156%  was recorded in the European Union for March 2022. 

According to a , the number of flights has skyrocketed since spring last year, without, however, reaching the levels met in 2019. The EU average of flights in March 2022 is lower by 27% compared to March 2019. The lockdown of 2020 and the sanitary and energy crises are cited as reasons for this. 

Croatia (-6%), Portugal (-8%) and Greece (-12%) recorded the lowest decrease in comparison to pre-pandemic times, followed closely by Spain (-14%) and Luxembourg (-15%). Other EU member states encounter more difficulties in recovering from the crisis that froze the commercial aviation industry, like Latvia (-43%), Sweden (-46%) and Slovenia (-56%) filling the positions at the bottom of the ranking. 

While flights between the EU and non-EU countries have also suffered from the covid-19 pandemic, there has been a strong increase in traffic between the EU and eight non-EU countries. The UK recorded a growth of 599%, followed by Norway (+375%s), Israel (+366%), Morocco (+236%), Switzerland (+230%), Egypt (+192%), Turkey (+121%), and the U.S. (+77%). 


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