ACI Europe has released its Full Year 2025 Airport Traffic Report, which shows an increase cross the region by 4.4% year-on-year, despite difficulties with European economies, inflated airfares, and supply and capacity pressures.
The year’s growth is now considered to be recovered from COVID-19, with an additional 100 million passengers travelling through European airports, totalling a record-breaking 2.6 billion passengers.
“If anything, last year’s traffic performance is yet another proof that air connectivity is a powerful and largely resilient economic driver, increasingly intertwined with tourism,” said Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE. “This reflects the rise of experiential consumption over material consumption – a deep‑seated cross-generational structural shift that is reshaping our economies, and for which Europe is uniquely well positioned. This means aviation is a critical enabler of competitiveness. Yet too many governments and policy makers still fail to connect the dots, and do not treat aviation as the strategic asset it is – especially in the EU.”
General overview
- Airports in the UK, France, and Germany underperformed due to punitive taxation regimes, with Germany recording -48% and France achieving -27% compared to 2019.
- Airports in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia were the top performers within the EU+ market.
- Passenger traffic to Iceland, Latvia, and Estonia declined due to airlines or services closing.
- Geopolitics affected several airports, with Moldova experiencing a 46.8% increase in traffic due to its placement as a gateway for the Ukrainian diaspora, Isreal recording a 31.3% increase due to security conditions improving, and Russia declining by -9.5%.
- Low-fare airlines boosted traffic in the Western Balkans, including Bosnia & Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Albania.
Regional airport overview
Small airports of less than one million passengers achieved stronger results than Major airports, increasing by 6.1% year-on-year, which has been attributed to the expansion of low-fare airlines, among other factors. Despite these positive results, Small airports remain the only segment of the airport industry to not recover pre-pandemic volumes, currently sitting at -33.2% compared to 2019.
Top performers:
- Medium airports (1-10 million passengers): Chișinău (+46.8%), Trieste (+25.2%), Bratislava BTS (+25.2%), Sarajevo (+22.2%), Varna (+19.8%).
- Small airports (less than 1 million passengers): Bucharest (+572.9%), Burgos (+56.6%), Oradea (+51.9%), Syros Island (+51.1%), Linz (+45.1%)
Looking at the outlook for 2026, Jankovec stated that European passenger traffic is expected to normalise at around 3.3%, with European airlines being estimated to deliver the strongest financial performance globally. However, ACI Europe raises concerns surrounding the European Entry/Exit System that is anticipated to fully rollout by April.
Photo: ACI Europe
