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%).