Passenger traffic up +2.6% across Europe in first half of 2026
According to the ACI EUROPE June, Q2 and H1 Airport Traffic Report, passenger traffic across Europe’s airports increased by +2.6% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year – although growth slowed significantly in the second quarter as geopolitical tensions weighed on the aviation market.
After a strong start to the year (+4.3% in Q1), growth eased to +1.3% in Q2, reflecting the impact of the conflict in the Middle East, which reduced traffic to the region and prompted some airlines to cut capacity in response to higher fuel prices. As a result, domestic traffic (+3%) outperformed international traffic (+2.5%) for the first time since the post-pandemic recovery began.
Passenger growth was broadly similar across EU+ airports (+2.6%) and the non-EU+ market (+2.5%), although airports within the EU recorded stronger growth (+3.2%).
Among Europe’s largest aviation markets, Italy (+4.2%) and Spain (+3.7%) continued to lead performance, whilst France (+0.6%) and the UK (+0.4%) recorded only modest growth. Germany (-1.2%) remained the weakest-performing major market.
The strongest-performing EU+ markets included Slovakia (+101.3%), Malta (+15.6%) and Slovenia (+14.7%), whilst airports in North Macedonia (+27.9%), Moldova (+21%), Albania (+17.2%), Uzbekistan (+15.7%) and Armenia (+11%) delivered standout growth in the non-EU+ market.
Smaller airports continued to outperform Europe’s largest hubs. In terms of airport size, Small airports (+8.6%) recorded the fastest passenger growth, followed by Large (+3.9%) and Medium (+3.7%) airports – whilst major airports handling more than 40 million passengers grew by just +0.8%. Small airports may have provided the greatest growth year-on-year, but remain the only size group to still lag behind pre-pandemic (H1) passenger levels (-33.2%).
Find out more, including freight performance, airport rankings and traffic analysis by airport size:
- PRESS RELEASE: Passenger traffic up +2.6% in first half of 2026
