International passenger traffic through the world’s airports increased by 24 percentage points in December month-on-month, data from Air4casts shows.

“This underlines just how resilient, determined and perhaps even obstinate, consumers are in their travel choices,” stated the travel retail marketing consultancy.

“The making and implementation of international plans in December took levels of confidence, which when permitted in the second and third quarters, will ensure a strong if not complete recovery in international travel.”

Low-cost carrier Ryanair, a useful barometer for the health of global passenger traffic, has said that it expects to materially reduce its flight schedules and traffic forecasts through January, February and March in view of the Covid-19 lockdowns in the UK, Ireland and a small number of other EU countries.

January traffic is expected to fall to under 1.25 million passengers, with February and March volumes tipped to decrease to as little as 500,000 passengers each month.

The measures will stay in place until the ‘draconian travel restrictions’ are removed, said Ryanair.

In the UK, the government is expected to open a support scheme for airports and ground operations this month after closing the country’s travel corridors.