European airports' passenger traffic negative for first time since post-COVID recovery, ACI says

BRUSSELS, June 4 (Reuters) - Passenger traffic at Europe's airports fell in April for the first time since the post-COVID recovery five years ago, reflecting disruption caused by the war with Iran, said European airport trade body ACI Europe on Thursday.

• ACI Europe's traffic report for April 2026 showed that passenger traffic across the European airport network fell by 0.7% compared to the same month last year.

• That decline marked the first year-on-year drop in passenger traffic since Europe's aviation sector marked its first recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2021, added Brussels-based ACI Europe.

• "While we were already seeing a normalisation of passenger traffic growth after the strong post-pandemic bounce back, geopolitical instability – most notably the war in the Middle East – is now further weighing on growth and exposing significant differences in performance across markets," said ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec.

• The surge in oil prices resulting from the war in Iran has hit the global transport and aviation sectors.

• Europe's main airport companies which are listed on the stock market include ADP. AENA, Fraport and Flughafen Zürich.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Toby Chopra)