The economic situation at German airports remains tense

Despite rising passenger numbers, the economic situation at German airports remains tense. As before, around 15 percent of all jobs at the respective locations are at risk, around 10 percent have already been largely dismantled in a socially acceptable manner, said the airport association ADV (Association of German Commercial Airports). Unfortunately, the figures for 2021 showed "that we are still in dire economic straits," said ADV President Stefan Schulte after a meeting of the industry at the capital's airport BER. Accordingly, sales in the current year across all airports are only 50 percent of the pre-crisis level of 2019. Once again, an operational loss of billions of EUR 1.5 billion is to be expected. That is significantly less than in 2020, when the industry still recorded a pre-tax loss of 2.1 billion euros due to the collapse in passenger numbers. In 2019, however, the locations still made an operating profit of 800 million euros. Nevertheless, there is a gradual recovery in passenger numbers, said Schulte. Business travel is also starting up again. "Not all business customers will come back," said Schulte. "But there is agreement that we will be 70 to 80 percent of the original business travel in the next two to three years." Overall, however, there is still a long way to go before air traffic can fully return to pre-crisis levels. Even in the best week of this summer, the number of passengers at German airports was only 55 percent of a comparable week before the crisis. "The pandemic will accompany us for a while," said Schulte. Nevertheless, in the past few weeks, travelers are likely to have had the feeling that everything is back to normal: Long queues and full planes are definitely part of everyday life at airports. This is mainly due to strong demand peaks in certain periods, it said. In addition, pandemic requirements such as vaccination passport controls delayed processes. Despite the limited capacity in the terminals, the punctuality rate is at the pre-crisis level. In view of the ongoing economic problems, the ADV demanded that the industry should still be able to use short-time working in the first quarter of the coming year. That is "appropriate" and "sensible".