Traffic volumes Zurich

Zurich Airport recorded a third of pre-crisis passenger levels

Zurich Airport welcomed 10.2 million passengers during 2021, up 22.7% from the previous year. However, this was still only around one third of the volume registered in the pre-crisis year of 2019. It proved to be a year of two halves, with the first half still very much dominated by the crisis: only 2.1 million passengers flew via Zurich Airport between January and June 2021 (14.1% of 2019 levels). Thanks to the relaxation of Covid restrictions and the boost from summer vacationers, passenger numbers then picked up strongly from July onwards. Over a million passengers a month flew to and from Zurich during the second half of the year, corresponding to approximately 50% of 2019 volumes. October was a record month with 1.6 million passengers (56.2% of 2019 levels). Travel restrictions due to the new Omicron virus strain resulted in a drop in travel activity during December. This proved to be merely temporary, however, and passenger traffic already started picking up again towards the end of the year.

As a result of increasing demand, the transfer volume at Zurich Airport also rose over the course of the year. While the transfer rate hovered around an average of 19.2% during the first half of the year, it had reached almost 30% again by December 2021. With an increase of 21.7%, the transfer market was still slightly weaker than the local market (+23.1%) however. Passenger volumes of home carrier SWISS saw above-average growth of 28.2%. SWISS accordingly accounted for 52.7% of the volume (previous year: 50.4%), followed by Edelweiss Air (9.7%), Deutsche Lufthansa AG (3.0%) and Chair (2.7%).

Europe, the largest market by volume, grew by 27.8% over the previous year. In contrast, the growth in intercontinental traffic was only 3.6%. Thanks to tourist routes, at 48.0% Latin America saw the biggest increase, followed by the Middle East with 31.2% growth. Although the USA did not open its borders to vaccinated travellers until November 2021, North American traffic increased 25.4% from the previous year. The Far East had the lowest passenger volumes, plunging 66.4% compared with the previous year. The ongoing strict travel restrictions – especially in China – and a marked travel hesitancy led to weak demand in this market.

Increase in flight movements and improved seat load

Flight movements at Zurich Airport totalled 132,600 in 2021, up 19.1% from the prior-year period (48.2% of 2019 levels). In the scheduled and charter flight segment, the number of flight movements registered a 15.9% rise. With an increase of 28.7%, the general aviation segment was significantly more stable.

During the year under review, the seat load factor improved year-on-year by 2.8 percentage points to 63.9% (2019: 78.1%). At 67.7%, short-haul flights achieved significantly better capacity utilisation than 50.8% for long-haul routes.

Marked increase in air freight

Freight volumes at Zurich Airport increased by 35.0% in 2021 compared with 2020 (87% of 2019 levels).

Road feeder services saw a notable upswing of 41.4%. Owing to the lack of capacity on scheduled flights, the volume of freight trucked to traditional all-cargo hubs grew significantly.

The volume of air freight handled rose by 31.5%. Here the many problems experienced with shipping by sea resulted in a rapid surge in demand for air freight.

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