Athens Airport Leads Europe’s ‘Mega Airports’ in Passenger Traffic Growth for January-June

Greece significantly contributed to the overall return of European air transport to pre-pandemic levels, boosting passenger traffic at Europe’s airports, according to the latest air traffic report released by the European airport trade body Airports Council International of Europe (ACI Europe).

According to data from the report, Greek airports ranked second among those in the EU+ market for the best passenger traffic performance compared to pre-pandemic levels, with an increase of 23.9 percent compared to the same month in 2019.

Greece followed Poland, which led with a 24.5 percent increase. Malta ranked third, recording a 19.1 percent increase in passenger traffic, followed by Luxembourg with 16.9 percent growth, Portugal with a 14.2 percent increase, and Croatia with 13.6 percent. Conversely, airports in Finland (-26.4 percent), Slovenia (-21.5 percent), Bulgaria (-20.5 percent), and Sweden (-19.4 percent) remained the farthest from a full recovery.

Athens Airport tops ‘Mega Airports’ category

Additionally, Greece stood out due to the performance of Athens International Airport (AIA) in the first half of the year. The country’s largest airport registered a 24.5 percent increase in passenger traffic compared to 2019, the highest in the “Mega Airports” category (Europe’s airports receiving between 25 and 40 million passengers annually). AIA was followed by the airports of Istanbul (Sabiha Gökçen), Lisbon, Palma de Mallorca, and Antalya in Turkey.

Overall, airports in the EU+ market (EU, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the UK) saw passenger traffic increase by 9.5 percent in H1 compared to the same period last year – coming right at their pre-pandemic levels.

Airports in the rest of Europe posted an increase of +5.8 percent in H1 compared to the same period last year – resulting in volumes standing at +2.9 percent above pre-pandemic.

Air traffic above pre-pandemic levels

The data shows that passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by 9 percent in H1 compared to the same period last year. The pace of growth in Q2 (+8 percent) remained dynamic, although it eased somewhat compared to Q1 (+10.2 percent). International traffic continued to be the main growth driver in H1 (+10.3 percent), expanding at more than twice the rate of domestic traffic (+4.2 percent).

However, only 53 percent of airports fully recovered their pre-pandemic passenger volumes by June, with leisure travel and low-cost carriers largely driving the recovery.

ACI sees ‘best summer ever’ but challenges remain

Despite ACI Europe’s forecast for this year to be the “best summer ever” in terms of passenger traffic, challenges remain. The global IT outage earlier this month, recurrent Air Traffic Management capacity shortages, and aircraft delivery delays are all affecting airport traffic.

According to ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec, the season’s progress will largely depend on whether demand remains resilient and sustained.

“The outcome will depend on how the currently mixed macro-economic signals play out,” Jankovec said.