EU commercial flights still below pre-pandemic levels-Eurostat
Oct 12 (Reuters) - The number of commercial flights in the EU from June to September remained below 2019 levels, before pandemic-related travel restrictions were put in place, a report from EU statistics office Eurostat showed on Thursday.
There were 605,806 commercial flights in the EU in September, a 7.9% increase compared to the same period last year but 8.9% short of the September 2019 figure.
Likewise, June, July and August all saw year-over-year improvement but remained below pre-pandemic totals.
In September, six EU countries saw more traffic than in 2019, holiday destinations Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Croatia and Malta, as well as Ireland. Traffic in Russia-bordering Finland, Estonia and Latvia remains more than 25% down. The ACI Europe body, which represents European airports, expects full recovery to occur next year.
(Reporting by Victor Goury-Laffont;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
