ACI EUROPE has released its air traffic report for June, the second quarter (Q2) and the first half (H1) of 2025.
Passenger traffic across Europe has increased by +4.5% across H1 when compared with the same period in 2024, with the pace of growth holding steady over both Q1 and Q1 at +4.3% and +4.6% respectively.
Of all gains, international passenger traffic accounted for its entirety at +5.7%, with domestic traffic remaining almost entirely flat at +0.2%. Passenger volumes during H1 stood at +5.1% above levels from before the pandemic (H1 2019).
Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE said:The positive performance of passenger traffic since the start of the year reflects the continued and strong resilience of demand in the context of significant supply pressures, operational disruptions, increasing geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions and renewed macro-economic uncertainties. All this brings renewed competitive pressures and traffic risks for airports, with much more volatile and unpredictable market dynamics where growth is no longer a given.
The Summer season keeps delivering for now — let’s see how the following months will be shaping up.
Across the EU+ area, airports saw rises in passenger volumes by +4.3% in H1 compared to the same period in 2024, with major differences in performance between those in the South-East and those in the North-West of the bloc.
The strongest performances came from airports in Slovakia at +19.2% Poland at +14.9%, Hungary at +14.2%, Malta at +11.7% and Cyprus at +10.8%, with airports posted the weakest performances, with Sweden at -0.9%, Estonia at +0.2%, Iceland at +1.4% and Luxembourg at +1.4%.
Airports in Italy registered the highest increase in passenger traffic amongst the EU+ market with an increase of +5.7%, as well as those in Spain at +4.5%. Airports in France (+3.6%), the UK and Germany (both at +2.3%) all underperformed the EU+ average.
The rest of Europe’s airports registered a +5.6% increase in passenger traffic.
Airports in Moldova (+49.2%), Bosnia & Herzegovina (+31.1%), Israel (+27%), Kosovo (+16.6%) and Georgia (+13.7%) all posted significant results, whilst airports in Türkiye (+1.2%) and Azerbaijan (+1.6%) saw modest volume growth.
Major airports processing more than 40 million passengers grew at the slowest pace during H1, with passenger volumes increasing by +3.3% over the same period in 2024:
- Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (+11.5%) and Rome Fiumicino (+6.5%) posted the strongest performances
- London Heathrow remained the busiest airport in Europe, processing 39.9 million passengers — a modest +0.2% increase over the H1 2024. Heathrow was followed by Istanbul (39.1 million passengers | +2.5%), Paris-CDG (34.6 million passengers | +4.3%), Amsterdam Schiphol (32.7 million passengers | +3%) and Madrid (32.6 million passengers | +3%).
Mega airports processing between 25 and 40 million passengers saw a passenger volume increase of +4%, with strong performances from Milan Malpensa (+11.4%), Athens and Copenhagen (both at +7.6%), whilst Large airports (10-25 million passengers) and Medium airports (1-10 million passengers) both achieved the highest growth at +5.4%.
- Apart from Tel Aviv (+27%) bouncing back, Krakow (+18.7%), Budapest (+15%) and Warsaw (+13.2%) stood out amongst the Large airports.
- Meanwhile, Trieste (+31.8%), Bournemouth (+24.9%), Kaunas (+20.6%), Poznan (+20%), Varna (+19.1%), Genoa (+18%), Girona (+17.1%), Memmingen (+16.4%), Wroclaw (+15.6%), Bari (+15.7%) and Cork (+14.5%) were amongst the fastest growing Medium airports.
Small airports processing less than 1 million passengers also saw positive momentum, with overall passenger traffic increasing by +5.1%, but these airports remain the only ones not having recovered their pre-pandemic (H1) passenger levels (-32.9%).
Freight traffic across Europe remained stable during H1 at+0.6%, with EU+ airports at +1% and non-EU+ airports at -2%. When compared to pre-pandemic (H1 2019) volumes, freight volumes stood at +10.4%.
The best performing airports amongst the top 10 in Europe were Liège, Madrid and Cologne at +10.2%, Madrid at +8.9%, and Cologne at +3.5%.
In June 2025, Major airports, Mega airports, Large airports, Medium airports and small airports reported an average increase of +2.4%, +3.4%, +2.4%, +4.2% and +5.2% as compared to June 2024.
