The second-biggest Transylvanian airport’s passenger traffic has been in a free fall since the pandemic kicked in. While in 2019, close to 1.6 million passengers traveled through the Traian Vuia Airport in Temesvár/Timisoara, that number dropped by 70.5 percent to 470,631 in 2020 (via Nyugati Jelen).
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, international air travel has been limited, so most passengers from the Temesvár airport chose to fly only to Bucharest last year. As for international flights (when pandemic regulations allowed), 51,870 passengers flew to and from London; Bergamo (Italy), 36,947; Memmingen (Germany), 28,862; and Munich, 28,101.
The shortened, three-month holiday period also affected the overall numbers, in addition to the pandemic regulations. The result: an 84.3 percent drop in passenger traffic and a 75.5 percent drop in the number of flights in 2020 compared to the previous year; only 10,000 passengers traveled by air to reach holiday destinations in Greece, Turkey, or Egypt.
The only segment that didn’t see much change compared to the previous year was traffic in heavy goods: It dropped by only 0.4 percent to 5,147 tons in 2020, down from 5,167 tons recorded in 2019.
The Traian Vuia airport operators are confident that in 2021 passenger traffic will be on the rise once again. They are already busy promoting air travel, launching three new flights this year while strictly complying with ongoing pandemic regulations.
Title image: Airplane at the Traian Vuia Airport in Temesvár/Timișoara. Image source: the airport’s Facebook page
