European countries saw wide variations in their recoveries after pandemic lockdowns and travel curbs, with Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Greece, Portugal and Iceland the five best-performers in 2022, according ro UK-based aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Albania and neighbouring Bosnia and Hercegovina were the only two countries to report more flights in 2022 than in 2019, with the next three listed coming in at 5% or less of the 2019 number.
Of the continent's biggest travel markets, Spain was the best performer at 90% of 2019 followed by Turkey at 89%. Italy was down 16% in terms of flight number of flights compared to 2019, with Russia down 20%, outperforming France, the UK and Germany despite its war in Ukraine and the ensuing imposition of western sanctions.
Ukraine recorded the biggest drop in flights as in 2022, with only 15% the number of flights taking off in 2022 compared with 2019.