Romanian airports handled over 21 million passengers last year, by 87.53 percent more than in 2021, shows data released on Friday by the Romanian Airports Association (AAR), Agerpres informs.

Compared to 2020, the increase in passenger traffic is almost 192 percent.

„Even if the total number of airport passengers in 2022 is 9.55 percent below the pre-pandemic peak recorded in 2019, it still exceeds even the most optimistic estimations for last year, which means that Romania’s commercial aviation industry has made a faster than expected recovery from the losses of the pandemic years,” the release of the industry association reads.

There were 220,681 aircraft movements (landings and takeoffs) last year, by 32 percent more compared to 2021, but 17 percent lower that the figure recorded in 2019.

On the other hand, air cargo traffic was above the pre-pandemic level, as 53,877 tons of goods were moved through Romanian airports, by 5.8 percent more than in 2019.

Agerpres