Strong October Places Athens Airport in the Lead in Europe

Athens Airport. Photo Source: Athens International Airport (AIA)

Athens International Airport (AIA) was among the airports in Europe reporting the highest increases in passenger traffic in October compared to the same month a year ago, according to data released this week by the Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe).

More specifically, AIA marked an 18.9 percent rise over 2019 in the category of airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year together with the airports of Palma de Mallorca (+12.4 percent), Paris (+11.0 percent), Lisbon (+9.5 percent), and Istanbul (+6.9 percent).

ACI Europe: Top 5 Airports October 2023 vs. 2019

Greece also marked a 21 percent rise in October overall thanks to incoming arrivals and VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traffic together with Iceland (+25 percent), Slovenia (+20 percent), and Portugal (+16 percent).

Passenger traffic across the European airport network continued its upward dynamic in October despite increasing air fares and geopolitical tensions marking an +11.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago and just 1.7 percent below pre-Covid October 2019.

“The momentum towards a full passenger traffic recovery for Europe’s airports kept going strong in October, defying both air fares which were up by +36.3 percent and the conflict in Israel adding further geopolitical tensions,” said ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec.

He went on to add that leisure, VFR and to a lesser extent blended travel were key demand drivers, extending dynamics normally associated with the peak summer months into the autumn. Jankovec confirmed that business travel also contributed to getting Europe’s airports almost back to their pre-pandemic volumes.

Overall, airports in the EU+ market led the growth dynamic, with passenger traffic up by +12.6 percent over October 2022.

Meanwhile, passenger flows through Europe’s largest airports grew by +14.6 percent in October compared to the same period last year, but were still down by 5 percent over October 2019.

Photo source: ACI Europe.

In October, traffic flows through London-Heathrow, the busiest European airport, were up by 18.1 percent over the same month in 2022 but down by 0.5 percent over 2019. Next in line were the airports of Istanbul (+11.2 percent compared to Oct 2022 | +6.9 percent over Oct 2019), Paris (+10.5 percent compared to Oct 2022 | -10 percent against Oct 2019), Amsterdam-Schiphol (+18.5 percent over Oct 2022 | -9.5 percent against Oct 2019), and Frankfurt (+14.9 percent compared to Oct 2022 | -11.9 percent over Oct 2019).

Greece’s regional airports also fared well with in October with those of Zakynthos and Corfu marking a 50 percent and 38 percent rise over Q3 2019, respectively.

In the same month, freight traffic across the European airport network rose by +2.2 percent over October 2022 but was down by -9.5 percent compared to October 2019.