Zurich Airport significantly exceeds its own forecast for 2023
Published: Monday, Jan 15th 2024, 18:40
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Significantly more passengers flew through Zurich Airport in 2023. The airport operator clearly exceeded its own forecasts.
A total of 28.9 million passengers traveled from Switzerland's largest airport last year, according to a press release issued on Monday evening. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of 28 percent.
In 2023, the gap to the figures from before the coronavirus crisis has narrowed significantly. The number of passengers in the previous year was only 8% below the 2019 figure, compared to 28% less in 2022.
This clearly exceeded the airport's forecast of 26 million passengers made at the beginning of 2023. As previously, the airport does not expect passenger numbers to recover fully on an annual basis until 2025.
Steady race to catch up
The shortfall compared to pre-crisis figures has steadily decreased over the course of the year. In September and October, passenger numbers were almost back to the 2019 level. In December 2023, 6% fewer passengers traveled via Zurich than before the coronavirus crisis. At the beginning of the year, however, the shortfall was still well into double figures.
The number of take-offs and landings at the airport also increased in 2023, to 247,456 after around 216,584 in the previous year. This is 14% more than in 2022 and 10% less than before the coronavirus crisis.
Meanwhile, freight handling fell by 10% year-on-year to around 378,000 tons. Compared to 2019, the drop was as much as 16 percent.
Passengers spend more
Passengers also spent more money at the airport in 2023 than in the previous year. Commercial revenue increased by around 19 percent year-on-year to 609.3 million francs. This is also slightly more than before the coronavirus crisis, when the airport generated CHF 601.4 million.
The increase was strongest on the airside, i.e. behind the security checkpoint, at just under 26%. On the landside, however, revenue only increased by 12 percent. This also includes revenue from the shopping center "The Circle".
Recovery continued in December
In December, passenger numbers amounted to 2.2 million, an increase of 15% compared to the same period last year. The number of local passengers accounted for the lion's share with around 1.5 million or 69%. 31 percent of passengers used the airport to change planes.
The number of flight movements also rose by 7 percent year-on-year to 18,888, meaning that an average of just over 600 aircraft took off from Kloten every day in December.
Aircraft capacity utilization was slightly higher than in the previous month of November. On average, 77% of seats were occupied, which corresponds to an increase of 1.4 percentage points. In a year-on-year comparison, the load factor remained constant.
Freight handling rose by 2% year-on-year to 34,688 tons in December. Compared to 2019, however, the decline is 10 percent.
The airport will report in detail on the course of business on March 8.
©Keystone/SDA
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