25/01/2022 (Agence Europe) – Air traffic recovered between 2020 and 2021, with a 37% increase in passenger numbers. However, it remains well below (-59%) its 2019 level, the pre-pandemic reference period, Airport Council International Europe (ACI Europe) said on Tuesday 25 January. This decrease between 2019 and 2021 represents some 1.4 billion lost passengers. TheACI Europe report specifically highlights that the Delta variant had caused a 77.7% drop in passenger numbers in the first half of 2021 compared to 2019. The roll-out of vaccines and ‘Covid digital certificates’ had given the sector a boost, with air traffic showing a loss of ‘only’ 42.2% in the second half. However, the curve that showed improvement was reversed at the end of the year with the appearance of the Omicron variant. (TM)