TIRANA, January 27
Air passenger numbers in January-December 2020 dropped by 60.7 percent compared to 2019, the Institute of Statistics said in a publication on Wednesday. The air industry came to total a standstill by the end of March following widespread lockdowns in European countries. The overall number of air passengers in 2020 was 1.3 million. The same numbers were confirmed by the Civil Aviation Authority (AAC). According to the aviation authority, Hungarian low-cost carrier Wiz Air had 24 percent of the passengers’ share in 2020. It was followed by Air Albania and Blue Panorama that accounted for 14 percent of the market each.
The decline in air passengers was highly impacted by the fact that Albanian citizens who didn’t hold an EU or Schengen area member country citizenship or residence permit couldn’t travel to those countries. Moreover, many European countries tried to prevent nonessential visits to non-safe travel destinations.
In the segment of freight transport, uplifted cargo by air declined by 24.3 percent compared to 2019.
In the meantime, maritime passenger transport dropped by 75.9 percent. The difficult situation in Italy and the restriction measures in place were among the main reasons for passenger decline both through the air and maritime transport. Italian cities are the main destinations operated by airlines and ferries.
Photo credit: Tirana International Airport
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.