The operator of the Frankfurt airport, Fraport, on Monday said released a data revealing that the passenger traffic in 2020 declined to its lowest numbers since 1980s due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on the travel sector.

According to the company, the airport recorded a total of 18.8 million passengers in 2020, a decrease of 73% when compared with the previous year.

According to company data, air traffic came to a ‘complete standstill’ between April and June, recovered in the third quarter of 2020, and fell again late in the year as restrictions were imposed again due to a resurgence of the novel coronavirus. In December itself, the airport recorded just 890,000 passengers- an 80% fall in comparison to December 2019. 

“The year 2020 brought extreme challenges to the entire aviation industry,” Fraport chief executive Stefan Schulte said, as per AFP reports.

 “Frankfurt’s passenger traffic will rebound noticeably in the second half of 2021,” he added, noting that ongoing vaccination drives would ‘lift the company’s fortunes’. 

At the same time, he projected that traffic in 2021 would reach only 35 to 45% of 2019’s passenger numbers, due the “difficult year” that lay ahead.

Germany’s largest travel companies have been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Airline Lufthansa and tour operator TUI have had to accept multi-billion euro aid programmes from the German government to stay afloat.

In the summer, Fraport announced that it would cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobs.