European airports exceed annual pre-pandemic traffic volumes in 2024

ACI EUROPE released its Full Year 2024 Airport Traffic Report on 12 February headlining that passenger traffic in Europe finally surpassed pre-COVID passenger volumes last year.

Europe’s airports collectively welcomed 2.5 billion passengers in 2024, an increase of +7.4% compared to 2023 and finishing +1.8% above 2019.

The growth dynamic was primarily driven by international passenger traffic (+8.8% vs 2023), and was more pronounced in the first half of the year H1 at (+8.9% vs. H2 at +6%).

Beyond these headline positive figures, 47% of the European airport network still registered full year traffic figures below 2019 results, pointing to considerable recovery differences amongst national markets and individual airports. Airports in 20 national markets have still not recovered their pre-pandemic levels, including war-affected Ukraine (-100%) and Israel (-41.5%), along with Finland (-25.1%) and Sweden (‑23.5%). Small airports remain the hardest hit and continue to recover at a much slower pace than their larger counterparts (-34.5% vs 2019).

Top 5 European airports in terms of absolute passenger volumes was topped by London Heathrow, followed by Istanbul, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam-Schiphol and Madrid-Barajas airports.

Find out more about key traffic trends and rankings in ACI EUROPE Press Release.

ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Reports are the only air transport reports to include all types of airline passenger flights to, from and within Europe: full service, low cost, charter and others. ACI EUROPE’s monthly coverage includes over 450 airports, representing over 95% of European airport traffic.

The ACI EUROPE Airport Traffic Reports are a dedicated service for ACI EUROPE members and accredited journalists, available in the password-protected sections of the ‘Media Room’ and the ‘Members Room’ on our website www.aci-europe.org.