PARIS: Domestic air passenger travel and freight flights are rising in Europe but "normal operations are still severely damaged by the pandemic," the head of European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol said on Tuesday.

Low-cost airline traffic is around 84% below pre-pandemic levels, director general Eamonn Brennan said in a webcast.

Key to reopening markets will be the pace of vaccine rollouts, with progress expected in coming weeks, he added.

Speaking in the same webcast, the chief executive of planemaker Airbus, Guillaume Faury, said the recovery in air travel in Europe had been "very disappointing" in early 2021 but that traffic was rebounding in the United States.