European passenger traffic reached nearly 95 percent of pre-pandemic levels in 2023. This is despite inflationary pressures with the associated higher air fares and severe geopolitical tensions.
The latest traffic data from the European branch of the airport trade association, Airports Council International (ACI Europe), show that European airports handled a total of 2.3 billion passengers in 2023.
Thus, air passenger traffic increased by 19 percent compared to 2022. The level is now just 5.4 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
The increase in travel last year was largely driven by international passenger traffic (up 21% year-on-year), with airports in the EU, EEA, Switzerland and the UK outperforming airports in Eastern Europe (+16%).
SIGNIFICANT PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES ACROSS EUROPEAN AIRPORTS
Although many European airports have reached records for passenger traffic, a large majority are still lagging behind their pre-pandemic levels.
ACI Europe Director General, Olivier Jankovec, points out that the geopolitical conflicts in Europe are a major contributor to the uneven European recovery.
”2023 has also been a year of multi-speed recovery and great divergences for Europe’s airports in terms of passenger traffic. While many exceeded their previous yearly record in passenger volumes, 57% still remained below their pre-pandemic volumes,” Jankovec said.
Across the EU and EEA, airports in Portugal (+12.2%), Greece (+12.1%), Iceland (+6.9%), Malta (+6.7%) and Poland (+4.5%) exceeded pre-COVID volumes.
However, only airports in Spain (+3%) achieved a full recovery. The countries next closest to achieving full recovery were Italy (-2 percent), France (-5.4 percent) and the United Kingdom (-6.4 percent).
Meanwhile, airports in Finland (-29.6%), Slovenia (-26.2%), Germany (-22.4%) and Sweden (-21%) remained well behind pre-pandemic levels, according to ACI.
Jankovec stresses that performance gaps among European airports will level out significantly in 2024.
According to ACI Europe, European air traffic is expected to continue to recover in 2024, with an expected increase of 7.2% compared to 2023. However, this growth will be slower than the previous year’s growth of 19 percent, but nevertheless 1.4 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.
THE FIVE BUSIEST EUROPEAN AIRPORTS IN 2023
- London Heathrow – 28.8 per cent year-on-year increase to 79.2 million passengers and just 2.1 per cent below 2019 levels
- Istanbul – 18.3 percent year-on-year increase to 76 million passengers, exceeding pre-pandemic volumes by 11 percent
- Paris CDG – 17.3 percent year-on-year increase to 67.4 million passengers, but 11.5 percent below 2019 levels
- Amsterdam Schiphol – 17.9 percent year-on-year increase to 61.9 million passengers, but 13.7 percent below 2019
- Madrid – 18.9 percent year-on-year increase to 60.2 million passengers and only 2.5 percent below pre-pandemic levels