Passenger growth at European airports ‘no longer a given’, trade body warns

Airline passenger growth in Europe is “no longer a given”, the head of the region’s airport trade body has warned.

 

The cautionary note came despite a 4.5% rise in passenger numbers across the European airport network in the first half of the year over the same period in 2024. 

 

International passenger traffic accounted for all of the gains - up 5.7% - as domestic traffic “essentially” remained flat with a rise of just 0.2%. 

 

Overall, passenger volumes in the first six months of the year were 5.1% above pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

 

ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec said: “The positive performance of passenger traffic since the start of the year reflects the continued and strong resilience of demand in the context of significant supply pressures, operational disruptions, increasing geopolitical and geo-economic tensions and renewed macro-economic uncertainties. 

 

“All this brings renewed competitive pressures and traffic risks for airports, with much more volatile and unpredictable market dynamics where growth is no longer a given. 

 

“The summer season keeps delivering for now - let’s see how the following months will be shaping up.”

 

Airports in Italy registered the highest increase in passenger traffic at 5.7% along with those in Spain (+4.5%). 

 

Conversely, airports in France (+3.6%), the UK and Germany (both at +2.3%) underperformed the average.

 

Heathrow remained the busiest European airport, handling 39.9 million passengers - a modest 0.2% increase over the first six months in 2024. 

 

The UK hub was followed by Istanbul with 39.1 million passengers, Paris-CDG (pictured) with 34.6 million, Amsterdam Schiphol with 32.7 million and Madrid with 32.6 million.

 

Small airports handling than one million passengers) also saw a positive momentum with their passenger traffic increasing by 5.1%. 

 

“However, these airports remain the only ones not having recovered their pre-pandemic first half passenger levels -32.9%,” ACI Europe reported.