Conclusion

This COVID-19 Briefing complements the initial operational ANS performance comparison between Brazil and Europe focussing on the air traffic development throughout 2020 and early 2021. This report serves as a nucleus for a regular updated online report in support of a future edition of the bi-regional comparison.

The June-2021 edition shows a varied picture for the evolution of air traffic demand in both regions. The higher level of fragmentation within the European context can be seen on the regional network and local (airport) level. Air traffic in Brazil benefitted from the existence of a unified set of travel contraints and the focus of international traffic on a subset of the top-10 airports. In Europe, the share of international and pan-regional connections per airport is higher. Accordingly, the variations across different national approaches to contain the spread of COVID-19 and associated travel constraint had an overall impact on the European network. Despite the initial recovery in summer 2020 was countered by a withdrawal of the freedoms due to increasing infection rates across Europe and delayed launches of vaccination programmes. A discernible increase in air traffic is seen with the second quarter of 2021. Brazil observed a continual recovery in 2020 driven. However, the increase in infection rates resulted in a strong decline in early 2021.

The strategic perspective on the recovery of air traffic around the globe varies. This edition shows a different pattern in Brazil and Europe that can help to further study pandemic related phenomena. With the returning traffic, the focus can move again to addressing how the systems cope with the increasing air traffic. It is planned to develop the regular update of this briefing into the next iteration of the Brazil/Europe comparison report.

For the latest edition, please consult https://ansperformance.eu/global/brazil/.