Traffic upturn continues at Sweden’s airports

Travel demand remained at an overall high level at Swedavia’s airports through October, despite continued global uncertainty.

According to Swedish airport operator, Swedavia, Stockholm Arlanda noted several days of passenger numbers approaching year-highs in conjunction with the annual autumn break.

It is also quick to note that waiting times at security checkpoints were at most 10 minutes for most passengers at Arlanda.

Swedavia adds that airlines started their winter programmes at the end of the month, with new investments in destinations and routes, mostly at Arlanda but also at Swedavia’s regional airports.

Among other developments, Luleå Airport has enhanced regional connectivity with a number of new direct routes to Europe, including London.

“Clearly, despite economic uncertainty and an uncertain global situation, we continue to prioritise travel and meeting people in person – both in our private lives and on the job,” says president and CEO of Swedavia, Jonas Abrahamsson.

“In the longer-term, there are causes for concern that may of course affect demand for travel, but we have not yet noticed any impact from this. On the contrary – we had a number of days at Arlanda in conjunction with the annual autumn break that were the most intensive travel days so far this year.

“The situation at the airport security checkpoints continues to be stable, with normalised wait times for the season, and nearly nine out of ten passengers had wait times of less than ten minutes.

“Our work together with our airlines and other partners to enhance connectivity across Sweden also continues to produce results at our airports. It is gratifying and important that our airlines are investing in the Swedish market.

“All in all, we have now recovered about 80% of the destinations at our airports compared to before the Covid pandemic, and 90 t of destinations at Arlanda. Many of these destinations are also brand-new.”

Among the new destinations that began operations over the past few weeks are Finnair’s new route to Doha from Arlanda, which launched on November 1. Ryanair has launched five new routes from Arlanda to Birmingham, Pisa, Malta, Turin and Tuzla, while Braathens Regional Air (BRA) is launching a new service between Bromma and Århus.

As for the regional airport, three new direct routes to European destinations from Luleå Airport will be launched in December – Düsseldorf (Eurowings), London (SAS) and Paris (Transavia). Eurowings will also start non-stop service from Kiruna Airport to Düsseldorf.

A total of 2.7 million passengers passed through Swedavia’s airports in October – 62% more than in October 2021 and close to 80% of pre-pandemic volumes.

The bulk of the total used Stockholm Arlanda (1.8 million), followed by Göteborg Landvetter (437,000), Stockholm Bromma (118,000) and Malmö (126,000).

The trend for travel at Swedavia’s six regional airports varied during the month. Compared to travel in October 2019, Luleå Airport had the strongest trend, followed by Kiruna Airport.