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Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport in has recorded 11.4% drop in passenger traffic in the 1st quarter of 2020. Cargo traffic has been maintained on the level as in 1st quarter 2019. We have achieved 6.3 million profit net.
Coronavirus has hindered our march for the next growths. The number of passengers at Gdansk Airport increased by 17.4% in January, by 14.3% in February in order to drop by 59.8% in March. The Airport has served 887 010 passengers during the whole 1st quarter of 2020 whereas the number reached above one million in the comparable timeframe of the last year.
Withholding the regular air traffic has influenced our Airport, just like other airports in Poland, Europe and all over the world. The airlines with whom we cooperate closely on daily basis have been suffering from the consequences of coronavirus badly. In this respect, our results for 1st quarter, especially for March when the flights were withheld, are consistent with the pessimistic forecast. The year 2020 started for us with excellence and we recorded double digit growth of the served passengers in the first two months. These passengers have disappeared since the middle of March, which must implicate a decline of figures – as Tomasz Kloskowski, the President of Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport in, has commented.
The numbers of passengers in the particular months of 2020 were as follows:
- January 374 355, growth by 17.4% as compared to January 2019
- February 367 538, growth by 14.3% as compared to February 2019
- March 145 117, drop by 59.8% as compared to March 2019
Gdansk Airport has recorded a minor drop of air operations in the 1st quarter 2020 after all, not more than 3.8% in a three month scale. The growth was by 13.5% higher in January, by 19.3% in February whereas the drop in March was by 40.4% as compared to the same period of 2019. There were 9 309 takeoffs and landings at Gdansk Airport in 1st quarter of 2020.
Gdansk Airport has not been operating regular passenger flights for over one month. We have been operating, on the other hand, cargo flights, sanitary flights of Air Emergency, flights to drills and ad hoc ordered flights, e.g. military or private for health reasons. We are ready to provide repatriation or special flights. Furthermore, the aircrafts based in our port take off and perform so called technical flights every two days in average.
Gdansk Airport has developed 6.3 million profit net in 1st quarter of 2020. Due to the block out in the middle of March this result is lower by 23% as compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
“After withholding the air traffic and restricting the work of our Airport we found savings wherever it was possible to find. We renegotiated our contracts as we, just like our business partners, have been deprived of income. We have been reducing costs but only using soft tools for this purpose. We do not make any redundancies. A part of our staff are working remotely, a part are on holiday, others take advantage of the paid parental care” - Tomasz Kloskowski, the President of Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport has informed. Two great investments, the extension of the passenger terminal and Alpha office building, are being implemented according to the schedule.
“I hope that after this crisis has finished, passengers will be willing to fly again and not less than so far. We have experienced it twice already after other crises, once after the attack on WTC in 2001 and another time after the volcano eruption in spring 2010. We had risen each time. And so will we now” – assured Tomasz Kloskowski, the President of Gdansk Airport.
The cargo figures look promising for the first three months of 2020. 1 804 175 kg of goods have been operated during this time, which is only 29 kg less than in 1st quarter of 2019.
