The UK achieved the best summer traffic resurgence as passenger numbers across European airports rose by 61% over the equivalent 2021 peak period.
Largely unrestricted cross border travel following the pandemic led to a boom in holiday and visiting friends and relations travel over three months to September, according to European airport trade body ACI Europe.
International passenger traffic – up by 84% – drove the surge, while domestic levels grew at a lower rate of 14%.
Passenger traffic in the third quarter of the year was 12% down compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels, an improvement over a 17% decline in the second quarter and 39% down in the first three months of the year.
The best performances came from airports in the UK, up 202% year-on-year, Finland, up 194%, and Ireland, up 188%.
But this largely reflected the fact that governments in these countries had been slower to ease travel restrictions last year, according to the study.
Airport capacity restrictions at selected hubs in the UK and Germany also acted as “recovery-limiting” factors, the trade organisation highlighted.
Istanbul was the busiest European airport and the only major European hub where passenger numbers exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
Heathrow came second followed by Paris-Charles de Gaulle, with numbers at -18.4% and -19.9% respectively below pre-pandemic levels.
Capacity restrictions limited passenger traffic growth at Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt.
ACI Europe added: “The performance of selected other large airports in Q3 reflected a summer recovery still mainly driven by intra-European and transatlantic routes, and dominated by leisure demand.”
September passenger traffic across the European airport network
was 12% down compared to levels in the same month in 2019.