Zurich Airport recorded a total of 16,873 flight movements in November. According to the figures from the airport website evaluated by the AWP news agency, this is a 30 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Compared to October, the month before the autumn holiday, the number of flight movements decreased by 18 percent due to seasonal reasons.
In the year before the 2019 corona crisis, about 2,600 more planes took off and landed in Zurich in November. Therefore, the difference to the pre-crisis level is still around 14 percent. The difference in the first eleven months is around 22 percent.
At the beginning of the year, the difference with pre-crisis values was still around 40 percent. But a clear recovery began in the spring. Flight movements, which were around 15 percent below the pre-crisis level, have finally stabilized over the past few months. Passenger numbers have also been around 15 to 20 percent below pre-crisis levels in recent months, as the airport announced on demand.
Fewer flights than before the Corona crisis are mainly due to the ongoing restricted air traffic to Asia. There are hardly any flights, especially to mainland China.
The suspension of flights to Russia due to the sanctions and to Ukraine due to the war was also reflected in the statistics. “The fact that Russia is not allowed to be flown by most airlines also affects Asian traffic, particularly Japan, with longer flight times,” a spokesperson said.
Flight movement figures at Zurich Airport are based on daily updated statistics, where the airport lists all flights operated according to instrument flight rules. In addition to scheduled flights, this so-called IFR traffic also includes freight, business and private flights. Nor does the number of flight movements say anything about the size of the aircraft used or its uses.
Zurich Airport will publish detailed passenger and traffic figures for November on 12 December.
(SDA)