EU commercial flights still below pre-pandemic levels, reports Eurostat

The number of commercial flights in the EU from June to September remained below 2019 levels, before pandemic-related travel restrictions were put in place, a report from EU statistics office Eurostat showed on Thursday.

There were 605,806 commercial flights in the EU in September, a 7.9% increase compared to the same period last year but 8.9% short of the September 2019 figure.

Likewise, June, July and August all saw year-over-year improvement but remained below pre-pandemic totals.

Greece is one of the six EU countries that saw more traffic this September than in 2019, along with Portugal, Cyprus, Croatia, Malta, and Ireland. Traffic in Russia-bordering Finland, Estonia and Latvia remains more than 25% down. The ACI Europe body, which represents European airports, expects full recovery to occur next year. [Reuters]