Passenger traffic in Europe rising but July growth below average

European airport trade body ACI EUROPE today released its preliminary air traffic report for July 2025 with data covering over 470 European airports.

It reveals that passenger traffic across the European airport network increased +3.1% in July 2025 compared with July 2024.

However, ACI EUROPE notes that historically, this ranks among the weakest July performances, below average for July growth rates in the decade before the COVID‑19 crisis.

International passenger traffic outperformed and accounted for all of the gains (+3.7%) as domestic traffic remained flat (+0.7%). Overall, passenger volumes in July stood at +5% above their pre-pandemic levels (July 2019).

EU+ THE REST OF EUROPE

According to ACI EUROPE, airports in the EU+ area posted results below the continental average with passenger volumes increasing by +2.8%. Significant divergences in performance between individual national markets continued throughout the month of July.

The best performances came from airports in Poland (+13.9%), Slovenia (+12.2%), Cyprus (+10.1%), and Monaco (+10.3%) — while airports in Latvia (‑6.1%), Estonia (‑6%), Iceland (‑2.9%) and Austria (‑0.5%) posted the weakest results.

All of the largest EU+ markets underperformed the EU+ average, with airports posting +2.7% passenger increase in Spain, +2.3% in Germany, +1.2% in Italy and France, and +1.1% in the UK.

Meanwhile, airports in the rest of Europe recorded a +4.7% increase in passenger traffic with performance gaps even more significant, reflecting the impact of both geopolitics and contrasted markets dynamics.

This resulted in airports in Moldova (+45%), Georgia (+12.1%) and Kazakhstan (+11.2%) posting double-digit growth rates — while those in Russia (‑15.1%), Israel (‑5.6%), Azerbaijan (‑5.2%) and Uzbekistan (‑1.3%) reported losses.

AIRPORT MARKET SEGMENTS

Major airports (over 40 million passengers per annum) grew by +2.7% in July 2025 (vs. July 2024), says ACI EUROPE.

Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (+14.9%) was the fastest growing major airport in Europe, followed by Munich (+5.9%) and Istanbul IST (+4.5%).

London Heathrow remained the busiest European airport while keeping its passenger growth rate flat (0%). The British hub was followed by Istanbul IST, Paris-CDG (+2.6%), Amsterdam Schiphol (+4%) and Madrid (+0.6%).

Mega airports (25‑40 million passengers) saw passenger volumes increasing by +2.7%, with the best performances coming from Milan Malpensa (+7.5%), Dublin (+6.9%) and Paris‑Orly (+5.5%).

Dublin Airport Authority Picture Conor McCabe Photography.

Large airports (10‑25 million passengers) achieved a +2.9% increase in passengers. The two busiest airports in Poland led the pack with impressive double‑digit growth: Krakow (+18.9%) and Warsaw (+12.5%), followed by Türkiye’s Izmir (+11.2%).

Medium size airports (1‑10 million passengers per annum) and Small airports (less than 1mppa) were the only segments achieving growth above the European average — at +3.9% and +4.0% respectively, largely driven by selective Low Cost Carrier expansion and the continued strength of leisure and VFR3 demand:

Stand out performances amongst Medium airports came from Moldova’s capital, Chisinau (+45%), Bournemouth (+31.9%) and Trieste (+22.3%).

Meanwhile, Kiruna (+166.4%), Karlstad (+147.7%), Bucharest (+134.5%) and Syros Island (+125.5%) were amongst the fastest growing Small airports with triple‑digit growth.

Small airports, despite achieving a positive momentum, remained the only ones not having recovered their pre‑pandemic passenger levels (‑22.4%).