Air travel dropped dramatically at Findel airport when the government imposed the lockdown restrictions. Night flights nevertheless remained stable.
People living under Luxembourg flight paths have certainly started to savour the (almost) plane-free skies.
At the same time, there were still cargo aircraft departing from and arriving in Luxembourg and repatriation flights.
Regular passenger flights were reduced to a bare minimum. According to the Luxembourg Air Navigation Administration, there were 4,737 “movements” in March 2020 (compared to 7,410 in March 2019).
April saw the numbers decline even more dramatically: there were 1,528 “movements” this year compared to 8,152 in April 2019. Air traffic picked up again in May with 5,335 movements (vs 8,725 movements in May 2019).
There were only 128 passengers in April 2020. By comparison, there were 389,006 passengers in April 2019. Passenger numbers slowly picked up again in May, reaching a total of 1,948.
Night flights
Night flights meanwhile remained stable or even increased during the lockdown. There were 173 night flights in March 2020, which represents an increase of 27 flights compared to March 2019.
There were 32 fewer night flights in April this year while May again boasted an increase of 17 flights.
Night flights (between 11pm and 6am) comprise, among others, government flights, search and rescue flights, flights carried out for humanitarian purposes, or commercial and freight flights that were delayed.
