Earnings Release • Jan 5, 2022
Earnings Release
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After a 2020 dramatically marked by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, also in 2021 the air traffic trend was affected by the global emergency, with significant consequences in Europe and Italy, but with a clear improvement in data compared to the 2020. Bologna Airport closed 2021 with 4,096,287 passengers overall, an increase of 63.7% on 2020, but a decrease of 56.4% on 2019, the last pre-Covid year.
The 2021 figure brings Marconi back to the traffic rates of 2006, when the Bologna airport was 10th in the national ranking of airports and the "revolution" brought by low cost airlines in the following years was about to begin.
In particular, in 2021 passengers on domestic flights were 1,535,859, +91.2% on 2020, but -21.5% on 2019, while passengers on international flights were 2,560,428, in increase of 50.8% on 2020, but at -65.6% on 2019. The year's flight movements were 38,029 (+39.1% on 2020, -47.8% on 2019), while air freight amounted to 38,854 tons (+12.1% on 2020, +2.2% on 2019). Cargo is therefore confirmed as the sector in which the Marconi reacted best to the pandemic crisis. In particular, Bologna Airport rose to 3rd place in Italy for tons of goods transported, behind only Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino, climbing 2 positions compared to 2019.
In line with the general trend to prefer travel within national borders, in the ranking of the "most flown" destinations to / from Bologna in 2021 we find three Italian airports in the first three places: Catania, Palermo and Bari, followed by Brindisi, Barcelona, Tirana, Madrid, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam and Olbia.
Analyzing in detail the trend of 2021, after a still difficult start, with monthly passengers that have never exceeded 100,000, starting from May, but especially in the summer months, when Covid has reduced the impact of infections, there has been a significant rise in the number of passengers which reached their peak in August, when the monthly 600,000 units were exceeded. The gap with pre-Covid levels gradually narrowed until November, a month which recorded a -25.2% on November 2019.
Unfortunately, the spread of the Omicron variant and the new "squeeze" on flights slowed the restart: in December 2021 the passengers were 468,607, with a decrease of 33.8% on the same month of 2019. Passengers on domestic flights were 158,360 (+5.1% on 2019), those on international flights 310,247 (-44.3% on 2019). The month's flight movements amounted to 4,481, a reduction of 20.2% on December 2019, while the air freight were 3,529 tons, for a growth of 16.0% on the same month of 2019.
2022 now opens with the impact of the new variant, which is already leading to a downward revision in airline programming for the first weeks of the year, in the face of new fears of "closures" between countries. The exit from the health emergency and the gradual return to passenger confidence are linked to the evolution of the pandemic in the months to come, to the implementation of measures to combat it and above all to greater harmonization of travel rules at an international level.
Bologna, 5th January 2022
Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi di Bologna, classified as a "strategic airport" in the centre-north area of the National Airports Plan prepared by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, recorded in 2020 - a year affected by the global pandemic - 2.5 million passengers, ranking as the eighth biggest Italian airport by number of passengers (Source: Assaeroporti). Located in the heart of the Emilian food valley and the automotive and packaging industrial districts, the airport has a catchment area of about 11 million inhabitants and around 47,000 companies, with a strong propensity to exports and internationalisation and with commercial expansion policies to Eastern Europe and Asia.
As for airport infrastructure, the airport has among its strategic objectives in the next few years an important development plan that mainly concerns the expansion of the terminal, particularly in the parts of security checks and gate area. The company's aim is to make Bologna Airport one of the most modern and functional in Italy, an important gateway to the city and region.
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Press Office: Investor Relations: Anna Rita Benassi Patrizia Muffato Manager Relations Manager Tel: +39/051/6479961 Tel: +39/051/6479960
Communication and Press Office Chief Financial Officer and Investor [email protected] [email protected]
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