French air traffic back to pre-Covid levels

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French air traffic back to pre-Covid levels

9:07 CAT | 23 Jan 2024

FILE - In this file photo taken on November 8, 2021 an airplane approaches for landing at the Franz-Josef-Strauss Airport in Munich, southern Germany. [File photo: Christof Stache/AFP]

Air passenger traffic in France last month matched its level in December 2019 for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s aviation authority said Monday.

Over the whole of 2023, passenger numbers in France amounted to 94.5 percent of the pre-crisis level, at just under 170 million, the DGAC authority said in its monthly statistics release.

The devastating impact of Covid-19 containment measures on air travel slashed French passenger traffic in 2020 to 30 percent of 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

It clambered back to 39 percent in 2021 and 80 percent the year after.

Last year’s figure was boosted by international travel, with trips to the United States and other European Union countries around 2019 levels, while links with Africa were up 13 percent on four years before.

Flights to France’s overseas territories were also back to pre-pandemic levels.

But internal flights in mainland France were still down, at 80 percent of 2019, as air travel has suffered from increased train use and video conferencing.

Source: AFP