Passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by 12.1% during the summer compared to the same period last year, reaching 96.9% of pre-pandemic figures, according to Airports Council International (ACI) Europe’s latest air traffic report for September and the third quarter (Q3) of 2023.
Milestones were reached during Q3, when London-Heathrow – Europe’s busiest airport by passenger volume – surpassed its 2019 traffic performance for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and nearly half of Europe’s airports had recovered their 2019 traffic volumes (48%).
The peak Summer season has brought Europe’s airports ever closer to a full recovery in passenger traffic, with demand largely defying inflationary pressures, much higher air fares and geopolitical tensions.
Olivier Jankovec, ACI Europe Director General
“But beyond positive headline figures, there were significant variations in traffic performance across both national and individual airport markets”, warned ACI Europe Director General, Olivier Jankovec. “These reflect the impact of the war in Ukraine and more generally structural changes in the aviation market. Leisure and blended demand is king, still predominantly focused on intra-European and transatlantic routes – and very much driven by capacity expansion from Ultra-Low Cost Carriers.”
The regional recovery is highlighted by performance at airports in the EU+ region (EU, EEA, Switzerland and UK), which only reached 95.8% of the 2019 traffic, while airports in the “rest of Europe” (Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) already surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 2.9%.
Amongst EU+ airports, the best passenger traffic recovery in Q3 compared to 2019 levels came from airports in Luxembourg (+13.3%), Greece (+12.9%), Portugal (+11.0%), Malta (+6.5%) and Croatia (+6.4%).
At the other end of the spectrum, impacted still by the war in Ukraine and the closure of Russian airspace to EU airlines, airports in Finland (-32.8%) remained well below their pre-pandemic passenger traffic levels. Other EU+ countries that also lagged in their recovery and remained more than 15% behind their 2019 Q3 levels include Slovenia (-26.1%), Sweden (-21.1%), Bulgaria (-19.6%), Germany (-18.3%), Latvia (-16.8%) and Czechia (-15.6%).
Airports in the rest of Europe continued to demonstrate remarkable dynamism in Q3, with the exception of those in Ukraine which have been losing all commercial air traffic since February 2022. Among the larger countries, Türkiye’s airports have outperformed their 2019 third-quarter levels by 6.0%, while Russian airports remained at -0.6%. Airports in Israel (-0.1%) were about to achieve a full recovery to their pre-pandemic levels, a performance now compromised by the conflict that erupted last month.
Notable strong performers in the region include airports in Albania (+114.9%), buoyed by Ultra-Low Cost Carriers’ expansion, as well as airports in Uzbekistan (+99.9%), Armenia (+70.9%) and Kazakhstan (+46.3%), all benefitting from traffic shifts in the wake of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Passenger traffic at the 5 best performing European airports grew by 14.7% in Q3 compared to the same period last year, but still lagged 4.7% below pre-pandemic levels. London-Heathrow secured its top position in Q3, with a 22.9% year-on-year increase in passenger traffic, exceeding its 2019 levels by 4.4% primarily due to a robust performance in September.
Istanbul came second, in a near tie, a mere 0.7% behind Heathrow – separated by less than 200,000 passengers. Its passenger traffic surged by 10.8% when compared to Q3 2021 and stood at +14.1% above its pre-pandemic levels.
Paris-CDG held a solid third place, with traffic increasing by 9.5% year-on-year and at remaining 12.2% below pre-pandemic volumes. Amsterdam-Schiphol (+13.6% year-on-year and -10.9% versus Q3 2019) and Frankfurt (+16.9% year-on-year and -14.1% versus Q3 2019) placed in the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
In contrast to the top 5, regional and smaller airports exceeded their passenger traffic volumes from Q3 2019 by +4%, Trapani (+378%), Perugia (+194%), Zadar (+155.7%), Tirana (+114.9%), Kutaisi (+107.4%) and Samarkand (+99.9%) being among the best performing regional airports.
