The number of aircraft movements bears witness to a fall in activity in recent months. For example, there were only 1,148 in April, against 7,023 in April 2019. And 1,727 in May 2020, compared to 7,427 a year earlier.

However, had movement numbers been higher, it would have made it impossible to carry out certain work during this period, such as speeding up the laying of tarmacs on the runways. In a parliamentary response, the mobility minister François Bausch (Déi Gréng) indicated that these works are complex, require a great deal of coordination and must be the subject of calls for tenders at European level.

And for the past two months or so, activity has tended to pick up. There were 2,738 movements in June and 4,339 in July. The reopening of certain borders, the resumption of flights to certain destinations and, of course, the summer holiday period partly explain this.

However, we are still far from being able to claim victory. Passenger transport demonstrates this: 36,412 passengers in June 2020 compared with 412,671 one year earlier, or more than 11 times less! The difference is clearly reduced in July with 133,919 passengers this year compared to 430,502 in 2019.

Not surprisingly, freight has held up best. In particular thanks to the activity of Cargolux in the context of the health crisis.

This article was originally published in French on Paperjam.lu