Europe’s airports, spread over 55 countries from Western Europe to Central Asia and Israel, made their first lunge past their 2019 figures last year, but the growth is quite uneven.
Passenger traffic reached 2.5 billion in 2024, up 7.4% from 2023, and 1.8% above 2019, according to Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, a trade group for airport operators. In passengers, that’s an increase of 200 million. Some of the larger long-haul airports have set records of their own.
But, despite that growth, the group said, over 200 airports have not regained their pre-Covid levels, and most of the growth comes from international traffic, which rose 8.8% while domestic travel rose only 2.5% and is still below 2019 levels. Some of that may be due to pressure in several countries, including Spain, France and Germany to curtail shorter-distance flights that can be made by train instead.
