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Slight boost to German air travel in 2021

January 31, 2022

Air travel all over the world took a pounding during the pandemic. New figures from Germany's statistics office show that 2021 had moderately more air traffic than 2020, with domestic flights in particularly low demand.

https://p.dw.com/p/46JCr
A night-time photograph of a plane parked at Munich airport
Germany's statistics office has reported a rise in passenger numbers in 2021, which are still far below the levels seen before the pandemicImage: imago/Michael Trammer

There were around 73.6 million air passengers taking off and landing at German airports during 2021, according to the country's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

While this figure was a 27.3% recovery on coronavirus pandemic-hit travel figures from 2020, it was still a whopping 67.6% down from the record high seen in 2019, when around 226.7 million passengers passed through German airports.

Domestic flights more affected than international

According to Destatis, pandemic restrictions had a varying impact on air traffic.

Domestic air travel was 19.3% down from 2020, and was a meager one-fifth of the numbers seen in 2019 before curbs to movement came into place.

This was in contrast to air traffic with other countries, which increased by 32.6% year-on-year to 68.8 million passengers.

European air travel that gave the numbers a boost during 2021.

International air traffic increased by a slim 6.7% year-on-year, to a level still 75.4% down on the numbers seen in 2019.

Destatis considers the numbers of embarking and disembarking passengers in international traffic, while only departing passenger numbers are collated for domestic travel. Transit travel does not form part of these numbers.

Air freight on the rise

Growth in air freight bucked the trends seen in passenger travel.

In 2021, a record 5.3 million tons of air freight, including air mail, passed through Germany's airports, an increase of 17.5% on the previous year.

The 2021 figure was also up 12.7% from the pre-pandemic level of 2019.

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kb/msh (dpa, Reuters)