The British blockade floods its airports in the European ranking

British airports Much worse performance than their European competitors was recorded due to the impact on their activity of larger travel restrictions, quarantines and reduced green lists imposed by the European Union government. United Kingdom, according to passenger traffic data on these infrastructures provided by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Last May, London Heathrow Airport, before a pandemic COVID-19 The busiest in EuropeAnd the 17th place in terms of number of passengers. With the increase in operations of other European airports, London Airport fell in the continent’s ranking: it was 6th in December, 12th in January, 13th in February and March, 14th in April, and was overtaken by Spanish airports. From Barcelona to El Prat and Palma de Mallorca Orly, the second largest airport in Paris.

Passengers at Heathrow are down 90% below pre-pandemic levels. Only 675,000 passengers used what was the UK’s first and busiest airport last month, compared to 6,769,000 in May 2019.According to analyst Ralph Anker of the specialized portal Air Service One.

Anker notes that “If Heathrow’s decline in the European ranking is worrisome, consider most other UK airports. While Heathrow held nearly 8% of traffic for 2019, most of the country’s airports underperformed significantly.”

Most of the country’s major airports reported lower single-digit ratios in April 2021 compared to their operating volumes two years ago.

Stansted and Manchester, both owned by Manchester Airports Group (MAG), had “retention rates” of just over 3%, while Birmingham and Edinburgh were somewhat lower than this figure. While Bristol was just under 2%.

Gatwick Airport, the world’s busiest single-runway airport before the pandemic, handled just 1.3% of the previous number of passengers, dropping from its place in Europe’s top 10 airports to 106th.

Of the UK’s 21 busiest airports in 2019, four currently account for less than 1% of their traffic: Leeds Bradford and Cardiff represented 0.3% of pre-pandemic traffic in April, while the East Midlands handled one on thousandths of a number. For 2019, while Southend Airport saw no passengers for the whole month.