boom of medium and small airports – Corriere.it

Low cost airlines were the real summer protagonists in Italian airports, in particular medium and small ones, taking them to higher values ​​even in the same record season of 2019. Large airports, on the other hand, have yet to recover, victims of a slower reopening of intercontinental flights in particular with Asia. this is the photograph that emerges from the analysis that the Courier carried out on the data provided by Assaeroporti and relating to the first eight months of the year. Which confirms the record performance of the Apulian and Sicilian terminals.

The first eight months

The association that brings together almost all the plants in Italy says that August closed with 19.02 million passengers, 7% less than the same month in 2019, pre Covid. From January to August, the progressive brings the number to 106.3 million, down by about 18% compared to eight months three years ago. For a more correct evaluation, then, travelers on domestic flights must be cleaned (for Assaeroporti they are counted twice, one from the airport of departure, one from the one of arrival). And so the recalculation results in 85.2 million unique passengers in the period January-August 2022 and 15.5 million in the month of August alone.

The market segments

From the calculation, it should be noted, all travelers who moved on private planes and not on scheduled ones were excluded. And, at the national level, the almost total recovery of flows on national connections emerges (-2% over the eight months of 2019), while there is still more than a quarter of volumes to be recovered at international and intercontinental level (-26.3%). despite an unprecedented resumption of travel between Italy and North America which, however, did not fully compensate for the closure of destinations such as China and Japan.

The methodology

The data at the airport level is even more interesting. Here too with some clarifications to purify the analysis. In August 2019 one of the largest plants, that of Milan Linate, was closed due to the restyling of the terminal and the reconstruction of the runway. Other airports, on the other hand, did not have flights three years ago – the case of Bolzano and Rimini – while this year they recorded several connections, closing August with 6,780 and 37,317 passengers respectively.

The ranking

In the first eight months, Rome Fiumicino strengthens its leadership – confirming the pre-Covid dynamics – with 18.2 million passengers, followed by Milan Malpensa (13.7 million) and Bergamo (8.5 million) which thus strengthens the third place. It should be noted, among other things, the overtaking of the Olbia-Costa Smeralda airport (2.3 million) over that of Rome Ciampino (2.2 million), the result in particular of the restrictions on movements imposed by the national authorities on the Capitoline airport.

Domestic flights

The comparison between August 2022 and August 2019 – the peak month of the year and therefore useful for studying the trend – highlights the impact on the one hand of the faster recovery of domestic and European flights and on the other of low cost particularly Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air and Volotea. Going to see only the national connections, the minor airports set the recovery record: Perugia + 239%, Cuneo + 221%, Trapani + 155%. Also noteworthy is the strong leap of Naples (+ 63%) and Ciampino (+ 58%), as well as + 46% of Olbia, + 33% of Bari. In negative, compared to three years ago, especially Malpensa (- 25%), Rome Fiumicino (-26%), Florence (-29%), Reggio Calabria (-46%) and Treviso (-75%).

International flights

On the international connections, on the other hand, the list of airports that do better than 2019 is reduced. Trapani stands out with + 260%, then Perugia (+ 115%), Turin (+ 31%). It is again noted that Naples closes August in this segment better than three years ago. The other major airports are not yet at pre-Covid levels on an international basis, with negative peaks for Fiumicino (-27%), Malpensa (-31) and Ciampino (-40%).

The general progression

And so on an overall basis – therefore considering the national and international connections – Trapani which records the greatest increase in August 2022 over August 2019 (+ 177%), then Cuneo (+ 141%) and Perugia (+ 33%). Naples marks + 13%, Olbia + 9%, the main Sicilian airports Palermo (+ 3%) and Catania (+ 2%) are also positive. Bergamo was slightly negative (-3%). The furthest from their pre-pandemic volumes in August were Fiumicino (-26%), Malpensa (-29%), Ciampino (-37%). Rimini closes (-44%) victim of competition with the nearby Forl airport.

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