Air traffic across Europe rose by 3 per cent in July with growth in international passengers accounting for all of the month’s year-on-year increase, according to figures from airports body ACI Europe.
International airline passengers rose by 3.7 per cent in July compared with the same month in 2024, while domestic traffic in Europe was flat with a year-on-year rise of only 0.7 per cent.
ACI Europe noted that monthly traffic was 5 per cent higher than in July 2019, although the 3 per cent growth figure was historically “among the weakest July performances” seen over the past 15 years, excluding the years decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Growth in traffic from Europe’s largest aviation markets was below the overall average for July, with the UK only seeing a 1.1 per cent year-on-year rise, while Germany’s traffic increased by 2.3 per cent, Spain’s passenger numbers were up by 2.7 per cent, and both Italy and France saw an uptick of 1.2 per cent.
The countries to see the largest increases in passenger traffic in July were Poland, which saw numbers rise by 13.9 per cent year-on-year, Slovenia (up 12.2 per cent) and Cyprus (+10.1 per cent).
London Heathrow maintained its position as Europe’s busiest airport in July with 7.98 million passengers, followed by Istanbul in second place, and then Amsterdam Schiphol and Madrid airports.
The UK’s hub airport set a new milestone in August when it catered for more than 8 million passengers for the first time in a single month. This included its busiest ever day on 1 August when more than 270,000 passengers travelled through Heathrow.
Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye said that breaking the eight million monthly record was “an outstanding achievement”.