Zurich Airport exceeds pre-pandemic passenger numbers
With a total of 2.77 million, Zurich Airport saw significantly more passengers in May 2024 than in the same month last year and exceeded 2019 monthly levels for the first time.
Compared to May 2023, the number of passengers rose by 9%, the airport announced on Wednesday evening. Compared with May 2019, it was an increase of 2%, helped by the Whitsun and Corpus Christi bank holidays falling in May this year.
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The airport saw a new peak day for the year on May 17 when, for the first time this year, more than 100,000 passengers travelled through the airport.
More flights
More aircraft also landed in or took off from Zurich in May than in the same month last year. The number of aircraft movements rose by 7.5% to 23,762, although only reached 97.2% of the aircraft movements recorded in May 2019.
On average, there were just over 132 passengers per aircraft, 0.3% less than in May 2023. The seat occupancy rate fell accordingly by 0.9 percentage points to 79.1%.
Commercial sales increase
Commercial sales increased by 3.5% to CHF55.4 million ($61.9 million) in May. ‘Airside’ shops and restaurants (after security) particularly benefited, with an increase of 6.1%. In contrast, ‘landside’ shops had to make do with an increase of just 0.3%.
The airport also handled 37,382 tonnes of freight in May, an increase of almost 23% compared to the same month last year. However, compared to May 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, this was a 2% drop.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kp/jdp
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