Air Travel Across Europe Recovering – Thanks to Low-cost Airlines

After the pandemic hit the European air travel industry, it started recovering this year. But the approach showed a two-speed affair with low-cost airlines taking the lead and the flag carriers struggling.

In the European air travel industry, the biggest gains have gone to the kitty of short-haul, low-cost carriers like Wizz Air and Ryanair. In the 2022 first quarter, intra-European travel was recorded at 30% below the levels in the 2019 first quarter before the pandemic. However, the stats till the last week improved to 13% below the 2019 level, a report from Eurocontrol, European Organization for Safety of Air Navigation stated.

Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair, recorded 8% more flights than the numbers in 2019 with an average of 2352 daily flights till 29 August. And BofA Securities state that the airline’s capacity is scheduled for the 2022 third quarter. In June, 15.9 million passengers used the service of Ryanair Holdings, up from 5.3 million for the same period last year.

Lauda and Malta Air, an Irish-based company recorded a 95% load factor during June. It’s merely 2% less than the 97% load factor for June 2019.

Meanwhile, WizzAir, Europe’s fastest-growing airline, carried 179% more passengers than in June 2021, recorded at 4.3 million passengers for June 2022. Moreover, its load factor also jumped from 64% in 2021 to 86.1% in 2022.

An announcement from Wizz says that it added new to Dammam in Saudi Arabia from Vienna and Rome.