Commercial flights drop 14% from pre-COVID era

Commercial flights in the European Union decreased by 15% in July compared to July 2019, the summer before the pandemic played havoc with travel rules, according to Eurostat.

In Cyprus, flights during July decreased by 14% compared to July 2019, slightly below the EU average.

In absolute numbers, 595,965 flights were recorded across the EU, and 7,626 of those commercial flights were in Cyprus during July.

Greece was the only country where there was an increase in commercial flights compared to the summer before the pandemic.

A total of 70,071 flights were recorded in absolute numbers, which marks a 7% increase for Greece from July 2019.

Flights decreased most in Slovenia, by 42% compared with July 2019 (1,612 flights in July in absolute numbers).

Most flights in July were recorded in Spain (156,199 flights, a decrease of 7.3% from 2019), Germany (135,256, a 24.2% dip), France (123,323, a 11.8% fall) and Italy (118,825, a 9.5% decrease), Greece followed in fifth place.