“Healthy Return” of Users Fuels Elevator Use Across Europe

London, Paris and Brussels lead the way in a resurgence of elevator use across Europe, CoStar^TM reports. On average, European cities are at nearly 80% of pre-pandemic levels, with tourists and office workers steadily returning, the source says, citing data from KONE. The OEM tracked the monthly number of elevator trips in offices and hotels in major European cities from January 2018 to March 2023. Just prior to the first cases of COVID-19 being reported in February 2020, London saw an average of 12,800 starts per elevator per month in office buildings. By April, that had plummeted by 80%. In March 2023, London’s average number of office elevator starts was 10,200 (80% of the pre-pandemic level). In March 2023, office elevator recovery, in terms of average starts, ranged from 70-82% in Berlin, Brussels, Hamburg, Helsinki, Milan, Munich and Paris. KONE Head of Software and Services R&D Johannes Rastas says he expects office elevator usage to return to pre-pandemic levels by the second half of this year. Europe’s hotel sector has seen an even stronger recovery, with Paris hotels experiencing a 99% recovery as of March with an average of 15,000 starts. Also notable were Hamburg, Germany, which saw 114% recovery, and Milan, Italy, with a 129% recovery.