Swedavia’s traffic statistics for October 2021

In October, nearly 1.7 million passengers flew via Swedavia’s ten airports, half the number compared to October 2019, before the pandemic. However, the recovery in air travel accelerated during the month, when passenger volume reached its highest level since the start of the pandemic. Increased access and to some extent the effect of the traditional autumn school break contributed to the trend, which has continued in November with new airline investments and air links. The easing of restrictions in the US and Thailand also paves the way for increased international travel, but also for important goods transports.

“The recovery in aviation continued in October and accelerated with the easing of restrictions and an expanded offering of air routes from our airports. We noted the largest offering of air routes and the highest demand for flights since the pandemic started, although overall air travel in October was half the level compared to before the pandemic. To handle the increase in air travel and growing number of passengers, we have now placed another terminal in service at Stockholm Arlanda,” says Jonas Abrahamsson, Swedavia’s president and CEO.

“After a long time with the pandemic, there is now pent-up demand for travel, especially to visit relatives and family. Naturally, it is tremendously positive that more and more airlines are choosing to invest in new traffic at our airports, not just for all travellers but also for important goods transports for trade and industry, given the great shortage of and great demand for good transports all across the globe,” says Jonas Abrahamsson.

Among the major airline investments at Swedavia’s airports in October and November are Finnair’s launch of non-stop intercontinental service to Thailand and the US from Arlanda. At the turn of the month, Ryanair is opening a base at Arlanda, initially with 23 European routes. In November, Thai Airways will resume service to Arlanda. At the same time, Vueling will launch new routes to Paris from Arlanda and Göteborg Landvetter. Both SAS and Norwegian are starting up service to the Canary Islands.

Of the nearly 1.7 million passengers who flew via Swedavia’s airports in October, 1,136,000 were international passengers and 552,000 were domestic passengers, which corresponds to a 52 per cent decrease in international travel and a 52 per cent decrease in domestic travel compared to October 2019, before the pandemic.

However, air travel in October overall increased 127 per cent compared to October last year. On Friday, October 29, Swedavia’s airports had more than 77,000 passengers, nearly 49,000 of whom flew via Arlanda, which was the largest number of passengers in a single day since the start of the pandemic.

At Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Sweden’s largest airport, air travel decreased 53 per cent to nearly 1,056,000 passengers in October compared to October 2019. International travel decreased 53 per cent, while domestic travel decreased 53 per cent. Compared to October 2020, which was also strongly affected by the pandemic, passenger volume increased 128 per cent.

Göteborg Landvetter Airport had a total of 284,000 passengers in October, a decrease of 52 per cent compared to October 2019. International travel decreased 49 per cent, while domestic travel decreased 64 per cent. Compared to October 2020, passenger volume increased a total of 154 per cent.

Bromma Stockholm Airport had more than 96,000 passengers in October, which is a decrease of 55 per cent compared to October 2019.

At Swedavia’s seven regional airports, the decrease in passenger volume was between 36 per cent and 60 per cent, for a total of more than 252,000 passengers. All of the regional airports also had a far better passenger trend in October compared to the preceding months and to the same month in 2020.

Air travel at Swedavia’s ten airports has decreased by a total of more than 53 million passengers since the start of the pandemic 20 months ago.

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/.