Asfinag board member Fiala: “The truck got away from the crisis faster.” Car traffic is also expected to decrease in 2021.
The state-owned motorway holding company Asfinag recorded considerably less traffic on the high-ranking roads in 2020, but there was no slump like the one after the Lehman bankruptcy in 2008. Asfinag registered a decrease in mileage of 18 percent across the entire network, with passenger cars falling by 20 percent and trucks only by six percent.
The development during the first two lockdowns was very different – in the spring the motorways were significantly emptier.
“The truck got away from the crisis more quickly,” explains Asfinag board member Josef Fiala. This is due not least to the open grocery stores and the flood of parcels. The bus traffic, however, had collapsed completely.
Vignette revenue decreased
The reduction in car traffic is reflected in the revenue from the vignette. In 2019 they were still at 524 million euros, this year they are expected at 452 million euros. The rest houses and petrol stations were also hit correspondingly hard with a minus of around 30 percent. For the Corona year 2020, the Autobahn holding is reporting an annual surplus of 700 million euros, after 864 million euros in the previous year.
For 2021, Fiala continues to expect a significant decrease in short-term vignettes and special car tolls compared to the pre-Corona times. However, there will be no savings program on motorways and expressways in 2021.
“The renovation will be more, the new building less,” said the Asfinag board in an APA conversation. The debt relief will be the usual eleven to twelve million euros of the past few years.
Asfinag benefits from the low interest rate environment. The last bond was placed at an interest rate of 0.1 percent. After restraint has prevailed with the noise barriers in recent years, Fiala wants to be more active here again. This is an important contribution to environmental protection. Asfinag is investing 1.1 billion euros in the coming year in the maintenance, construction and improvement of motorways and expressways.
