As expected, airports across the globe have reported hefty year-on-year passenger traffic losses in March as the full brunt of the coronavirus (Covid-19) on aviation is laid bare.

Passenger volumes at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) depressed by 52% compared to the same month last year, as the government’s lockdown and travel restrictions hit home.

Most of the three million journeys made were repatriated flights and initial forecasts for April put pax demand at -90%, with ‘lasting and significant industry-wide effects predicted’, says LHR.

The London hub moved to a single runway on 6 April and expects to consolidate operations into Terminal 2 and 5 in the coming weeks.

HKIA TRAFFIC DOWN -91%

Available capacity is being prioritised for cargo flights and medical supplies and LHR states it is ‘well placed’ to welcome time-critical and temperature sensitive goods such as ventilators, medicines and Covid-19 testing kits.

Last week, the airport donated 6,000 face masks to NHS teams working at Thames Valley Air Ambulance and Hillingdon and has pledged educational resources to local schools. It has also redeployed Heathrow Community Rangers to help with delivering donations to local food banks.

Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: “Heathrow continues to serve the nation by keeping vital supply lines open, and helping people get home. Now is the time to agree a common international standard for healthcare screening in airports so that when this crisis recedes, people can travel with confidence and we can get the British economy moving again.”

Meanwhile, Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) handled 576,000 passengers in March, a decrease of 91% year on year.

Tightened immigration and quarantine measures are linked to the drop in traffic, with visitor numbers hardest hit with a 97% decrease year on year.

Transfer and transit traffic and HK resident travel also slumped by 91% and 83%, respectively.

As reported, Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has implemented relief measures for concessionaires with the latest round of funding worth up to HK$2 billion/$258 million. Senior management have also taken pay cuts.

All transit and transfer services at HKIA were suspended on 25 March, with non-HK residents travelling from overseas countries and regions denied entry to the country.

Germany has been praised for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic [the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reports 127,584 confirmed cases and 3,254 deaths in the country, correct as of 15 March – Ed].

At Frankfurt Airport, traffic slumped by 62% in March year on year, with accumulated pax falling by 24.9% in the first three months of this year.

Repatriation flights organised by tour operators and the German government have had a minor effect on the result.

In a statement, operator Fraport AG says the decline in passenger traffic is continuing in April, having plummeted by 96.8% last week (6-12 April).

Covid-19 impacted the Group’s international portfolio for the first time in March, with notable drops in passenger traffic across all its airports.

Among them is Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport, which registered a decline of -72.8%, while Fortaleza and Porto Alegre Airports in Brazil suffered combines losses of -37.5%.

Meanwhile, total traffic across the Group’s 14 Greek regional airports sank by 58.8%.