Europe: Top 5 Busiest Airports by Passenger Numbers In 2022

• Nearly 2 billion passengers welcomed by Europe’s airports in 2022
• Passenger traffic doubling compared to 2021, but still -21% below pre-pandemic (2019) levels
• Only 27% of Europe’s airports recovered their pre-pandemic (2019) passenger volumes in 2022 – with most of them (90%) being smaller & regional airports
• TOP 5 European airports in 2022: 1. Istanbul, 2. London Heathrow, 3. Paris CDG, 4. Amsterdam Schiphol 5. Madrid.

Passenger traffic across the European airport network nearly doubled (+98%) in 2022 compared to the previous year, reaching 1.94 billion passengers. However, that was still -21% below pre-pandemic (2019) volumes, with just 27% of Europe’s airports having fully recovered their 2019 passenger traffic level.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE said: “The surge in passenger traffic last year has been phenomenal. Kicking off in early Spring when most travel restrictions were finally lifted, it boomed over the Summer and remained resilient afterwards. All of this despite geopolitical shocks, deteriorating macro-economics, fast-rising air fares and COVID still being with us. If anything, 2022 has been the year in which we finally learned how to live and travel with COVID-19.”

Jankovec however put this in perspective: “This is not yet a full recovery. Europe’s airports were still short 500 million passengers in 2022 compared to where they stood before the pandemic hit. And there were significant gaps in traffic performance between hubs and smaller regional airports as well as across national markets”.

Despite getting off to a slow start due to complications regarding the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, 2022 largely marked a year of recovery for Europe's main air hubs. Indeed, five of the continent's major airports handled more than 50 million passengers apiece last year, but which facility came out on top? Using data from Airports Council International, the picture becomes clear.

Istanbul

Leading the way in 2022 was Turkey's new Istanbul Airport (IST). Since its full-scale opening in April 2019, this facility has become a key transit hub, with many passengers taking advantage of its convenient location on the peripheries of both Europe and the Middle East. Last year, it served a total of 64.3 million passengers.

While the facility is not yet operating at pre-pandemic capacity levels in terms of passenger numbers, it is the closest out of Europe's five busiest airports. Indeed, its strong showing last year brought it to within 6.2% of pre-pandemic traffic volumes, and the airport will be hoping for similarly impressive, if not better, figures this year.

London Heathrow

While the UK's London Heathrow (LHR) was the busiest airport in Europe last year when it came to available seat kilometers, it ranked second by raw passenger numbers. Its overall total last year came to 61.6 million passengers.

Despite this promising showing, Heathrow still has a fair way to go before reaching pre-pandemic passenger numbers, as 2022's total was 23.8% lower than in 2019. Nonetheless, with traffic and demand only increasing, the UK's largest airport will be hoping to get much closer to pre-coronavirus passenger totals in 2023.

Paris Charles de Gaulle

Across the English Channel in France, the capital city's Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) saw Europe's third-highest passenger total last year. All in all, the facility handled 57.5 million passengers, with this figure representing a 24.5% deficit compared to the 76.2 million that it welcomed back in 2019.

That being said, CDG is well-placed to further its recovery this year. After all, Simple Flying reported in October that the facility had the most scheduled passenger airlines serving it of any airport in the world, boasting an impressive total of 96. It will be hoping to leverage this to handle as many guests as possible in 2023.

Amsterdam Schiphol

Fourth-placed Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) had something of a rough ride in 2022, with chronic staff shortages rendering the Dutch facility unable to handle the huge levels of pent-up travel demand. This prompted the introduction of passenger caps, which are set to be removed in March. While these restricted capacity, Schiphol still handled 52.5 million passengers in 2022 (down 26.8% vs 2019).

Madrid Barajas

Rounding out the top five we have Spain's Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD), whose 2022 passenger total came to 50.6 million. This made it the second-closest out of the top five in terms of the figure's proximity to that achieved in 2019. This year will see the likes of Aerolíneas Argentinas and Korean Air boost their presence in Madrid.

During 2022, airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passengers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per year (Group 4) reported an average adjustment of -22.6%, -23.6%, -14.4% and -11.9%, as compared to pre-pandemic traffic levels (2019). The airports that reported the best performance in passenger traffic for Full Year 2022 (when compared with Full Year 2019) are as follows:

GROUP 1:    Palma de Mallorca (?3.9%), Istanbul IST (?6.2%), Paris ORY (?8.4%), Lisbon (-9.3%) and Athens (-11.2%).

GROUP 2:    Naples (+0.5%), Catania (?1.2%), Tenerife South (?3.3%), Porto (-3.6%) and Bergamo (-5.1%).

GROUP 3:    Almaty (+15.6%), Rhodes (+6.5%), Heraklion (+1.7%), Palermo (+1.4%) and Lanzarote (+0.7%).

GROUP 4:    Tirana (+55.7%), Prishtina (+26.1%), Santorini (+25.6%), Funchal (+20.8%) and Sarajevo (+20.4%).

February 11, 2023