Eurostat: AIA Among Top 10 EU Airports with Most Flights in 2023

Athens International Airport (AIA) was the 10^th largest airport in terms of commercial flights in the European Union last year, according to data released this week by Eurostat.

The EU’s Top 3 airports handling the largest number of commercial flights were Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Netherlands) with 453,000 flights, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in France (453,000 flights), and Frankfurt Airport, Germany (427,000 flights).

Overall in the EU, a total of 6.3 million commercial flights were carried out in 2023, still down on 2019 (7.0 million).

AIA:  Highest share of non-scheduled flights in 2023

According to Eurostat, Greece’s largest airport, AIA, accounted for 5.6 percent of total non-scheduled flights (charter flights and other special flights) in the EU last year.

Following AIA, were the airports of Vienna, accounting for 5.1 percent of non-scheduled flights and Madrid with 4.7 percent.

Non-scheduled flights constituted 9.2 percent of all flights last year in the EU. Peak flight activity across the Union was recorded in the summer months, June (10.9 percent), July (11.4 percent), and August (10.4 percent).

Athens Airport’s performance in 2023

Athens Airport broke all passenger traffic records in 2023 exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 by 10.2 percent and 2022 by 24 percent. Indicative of the airport’s peak performance is the launch last week of an initial public offering (IPO) for a 30 percent stake in the operator of AIA, Athens International Airport SA. Initial trading on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) of common shares is scheduled to begin on February 7.

Athens Airport has repeatedly been awarded for performance in several key areas. In 2023, it was among the winners of ACI Europe’s Best Airport Awards 2023. It currently employs more than 16,000 people in over 370 companies making it one of the country’s largest employers. By 2046, the number of passengers through AIA is expected to reach 43.7 million. Last fall, AIA was ranked 9th among Europe’s 10 Airport Megahubs, according to the Megahubs Index 2023 released by OAG. In 2019, the airport ranked 56th.