Significant VFR demand in Nuremberg – a relevant growth driver for summer season 2021

In 2020, especially during the last winter months in the middle of the pandemic, NUE airport has noticed that destinations that have a high share of VFR-passengers flying to recovered really quickly. Not only were VFR-destinations such as Niš, Cluj, Bucharest or İzmir and Thessaloniki among the first to be served after weeks of lockdown, these destinations also showed an overall higher seat load factor compared to all other destinations and were popular even in the light lockdown.

Around 43,400 people with a migration background per 100,000 inhabitants in total live in Nuremberg city, which is a significantly higher number than even Munich with 39,400 people per 100,000 inhabitants. These inhabitants have a strong desire to visit their friends and relatives abroad and have potentially built up strong pent up demand.

Relating the number of inhabitants with migration background by country to the departing passengers to typical VFR-destinations in 2019, NUE has large potential for significant growth for connections to Poland, Russia and Kazakhstan, seeing that these markets are yet to be served for the VFR-segment. Italy and Hungary in 2021 (due to the loss of many destinations compared to 2019) and Greece constitute exciting markets as well.