Estonia's 2020 passenger flight numbers drop very close to EU average
Estonia posted a drop in air passenger numbers on a par with the European Union as a whole, in the coronavirus-blighted year of 2020. The fall in passenger numbers stood at 73.7 percent on year to 2020, in Estonia's case, compared with a European Union average of 73.3 percent.
Among the remaining EU member states, 20 recorded a fall in passenger numbers of 70 percent or more over the same period, while all of the member states suffered a fall in numbers of at least 65 percent. The smallest decline, at 67.3 percent, was posted by Luxembourg.
Most of the fall was the result of coronavirus restrictions, which at the peak of the initial wave in spring 2020 led to virtual standstill in passenger flights in Estonia and across Europe.
The overall figure of passenger numbers traveling by air in the EU was 277 million, BNS reports.
Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia, all tourist destinations, saw the steepest decline in passenger numbers in 2020, all at above the 80-percent mark.
Forty-five percent of total air passenger transport in 2020 was outside the EU, 33 percent was within the EU and the remaining 22 percent was taken up by internal, domestic flights inside EU member states.
The latter segment actually grew in 2020 by a few percentage points, perhaps unsurprisingly given the collapse of international air travel.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte