From Ryanair's record to Naples' overtaking: all the flight numbers in Italy
A resounding result, but one that has solid basis in the reality of Italian air transport: our airports are dominated by the [...]
Ryanair
ITA Airways
A resounding result, but one that has solid basis in the reality of Italian air transport: our airports are dominated by the low cost airlines In both international and domestic travel.
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The only exception is the intercontinental flights which still remain firmly in the hands of legacy carriers. This is the analysis of official traffic data released by Enac, the National Civil Aviation Authority.
Passengers in Italy
In 2022 were 164,342,812 commercial flight passengers scheduled and charter at Italian airports, on domestic and international routes (the +104% compared to 2021) in Italy, while compared to the pre-Covid period the figure still remains negative (-14% compared to 2019).
The domestic traffic, on the other hand, reached 64.5 million passengers, an increase of +53% over 2021, while international traffic, with 99.9 million passengers, grew by +160.8% over the same year.
All the records of Ryanair
Ryanair thus overachieves as the Peninsula's top airline with 45.6 million passengers carried; while easyJet maintains second place by counting the various subsidiaries totaling just over 13 million passengers (11 million easyJet Europe, 2.1 easyJet Uk and easyJet Switerzland with 925,000) followed by Wizz Air (11 million passengers).
Fourth place for the national airline Ita Airways with 10.3 million passengers, fifth for Vueling (the low-cost company of the Iag Group) with 4.4 million.
The shocking result is that the total passengers of the top four airlines (excluding Ryanair) reach almost 35 million, which is 10 million less than the total of the Irish airline alone.
In essence, in fact, Ryanair checks the 28% of all flights operated in Italy. Not only that, the 66% of all routes in our country are low-cost brand.
Regarding international flights, finally, the top legacy airline in Italy is Ita Airways with 3.9 million passengers, followed by Lufthansa with 3.1 million, Air France with 2.6 million, British with 2.3 million, KLM with 1.5 million and Turkish with 1.4 million Of passengers.
On domestic flights, finally, Ryanair continues its climb with 14.2 million passengers, followed by Ita Airways (6.4 million) and easyJet (3.2 million).Wizz Air in fourth place reaches 3.1 million and is ahead of Spain's Volotea (2,7). Ryanair Group also pops up in sixth place with the rib Malta Air (1.8 million) which goes to boost the results of the Michael O'Leary-led holding company even more.
Naples overtakes Catania
With regard to airports, moreover, the following stands out. Naples Capodichino which ranks fourth in absolute numbers, surpassing the airport of Catania Fontanarossa.
Leading the way, as always, is Rome Fiumicino with 29.1 million passengers (17.7% of the Italian total), followed by Milan Malpensa with 21.2 million (12.9%), Bergamo Orio Al Serio with 13.1 (the 8%).
Naples overtakes Catania in fourth place (10.8 million) compared to 10 million at the Sicilian airport, thanks mainly to an increase in international flights to/from the Campania capital.
For the Enac president, Pierluigi Di Palma:
"The crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic," he comments, "is fortunately behind us as far as our industry is concerned. Planes and airports have resumed having respectable numbers and connecting the world. Air transport, after all, has changed the way we live over the past decades and resumed its rapid flight as soon as health and social conditions allowed us to do so. With the same speed, which is a priority feature of civil aviation, technological innovation is leading us toward an entirely new, sustainable and intermodal air mobility."
