Swedavia’s traffic statistics for May 2021

In May, 446,000 passengers flew via Swedavia’s ten airports, a decrease of 88 per cent compared to May 2019, before the pandemic, when Swedavia had 3,636,000 passengers. Domestic traffic fared somewhat better than international traffic, but demand for flights continued to be strongly affected by the pandemic. Despite the uncertain situation, there are now rays of hope and early signs of a recovery.

“May was another travel month strongly affected by the pandemic, and so far no recovery has been seen in passenger figures, either at our own airports or elsewhere in Europe. However, there are now more rays of hope than in a long while. While there is a great deal of uncertainty, there are clear signs of a recovery later this summer and in the autumn,” says Jonas Abrahamsson, Swedavia’s president and CEO.

“In time for summer, we see that conditions both for travelling and for safer travel have improved. Airlines are resuming and expanding service, though on a smaller scale compared to before. The spread of the coronavirus is slowing as the vaccine rollout continues, and we also see countries starting to open up and travel restrictions being lifted. We know that many people have a strong desire to travel and that there is strong pent-up demand for travel,” says Jonas Abrahamsson.

“However, the trend going forward depends entirely on progress in vaccination efforts and on nothing unforeseen happening with the pandemic. Furthermore, the use of health certificates, which will facilitate free movement and travel, is critical,” Jonas Abrahamsson continues.

“Our airports across Sweden are ready to welcome more passengers this summer, and we will do our utmost to enable safe, smooth travel. In addition to all the previous infection control measures already in place, we are also making a major investment in time for the summer travel season in rapid testing at our bigger airports. Obviously, it is crucial that our passengers feel safe at our airports also in a situation where the pandemic is easing,” Jonas Abrahamsson adds.

Of the total 446,000 passengers in May, 254,000 were international passengers, a decrease of 90 per cent compared to May 2019, when 2,480,000 passengers flew internationally. Domestic travel decreased 83 per cent to 192,000 passengers compared to May 2019, when the number of domestic passengers was 1,156,000.

At Sweden’s largest airport, Stockholm Arlanda Airport, air travel decreased 88 per cent to 271,000 in May compared to May 2019. International travel decreased 90 per cent to 185,000 passengers, while domestic travel decreased to a lesser extent, 80 per cent, to 86,000 passengers.

At Göteborg Landvetter Airport, air travel decreased 89 per cent to 64,000 passengers in May. International and domestic travel each decreased 89 per cent during this period.

At Bromma Stockholm Airport, air traffic decreased 91 per cent to 21,000, which was the second largest decrease at Swedavia’s airports in May compared to the same month in 2019.

At Swedavia’s seven regional airports, the number of passengers decreased between 59 per cent and 93 per cent to 89,000 passengers in May. Kiruna Airport continues to be the airport that has done best, likewise in May, with a decrease of 59 per cent. Visby Airport was the regional airport that did second best in May, with a decrease of 75 per cent.

In the fifteen months since the start of the pandemic, Swedavia has lost a total of nearly 42 million passengers.

These comparisons are made with travel volumes in May 2019 because those volumes are considered “normal” for what travel looked like before the pandemic, since May 2020 was also a month strongly affected by the pandemic’s impact.

Traffic statistics for Swedavia’s airports are available (in Swedish) under “Om Swedavia/Statistik”: https://www.swedavia.se/om-swedavia/statistik/.

More information about the measures Swedavia has taken for our passengers is available at www.swedavia.se. See for example: https://www.swedavia.com/arlanda/before-your-journey/.

For further information, please contact Swedavia’s press office at tel. +46(0)10-109 01 00 or press@swedavia.se.