ACI EUROPE has released its traffic report for May 2026 and says that, after turning negative for the first time since the post-COVID recovery in April, passenger traffic across the European airport network rebounded in May with an increase of +3.2% when compared to the same month last year.
Small airports of under 1 million passengers delivered the most contrasted results again in May, the association says. The segment achieved the best year-on-year performance overall with a +7.2% growth in passenger traffic, however it kept faring the worst when compared to pre pandemic (2019) volumes (-25.5%).
EU+ airports led the growth dynamic at +3.4%, with volumes expanding the fastest within the EU (+4.2%), whereas the non-EU+ market2 lagged behind the European average at +2%.
Airports in Slovakia, Malta, Estonia and Slovenia recorded the highest growth, with Bulgaria (+9.2%), Poland (+8.9%), Lithuania and Denmark (both at +8.5%) also showing strong gains.
Cyprus continued to be affected by the impact of the war on destination perception. Iceland, Austria and Latvia were impacted by airline capacity cuts and Switzerland by SWISS cutting flights due to crew shortages and aircraft groundings as well as runway refurbishment at Basel/Mulhouse EuroAirport.
ACI EUROPE says that, amongst the largest EU+ markets, airports in Italy (+5.1%) and Spain (+5%) went up head-to-head in May. Airports in France (+1.7%) and the UK (+0.9%) continued to underperform the European average while those in Germany (-0.6%) were dragged down by capacity reductions linked to the grounding of Lufthansa CityLine.
London Heathrow retained its position as the busiest European airport in May, welcoming 7.12 million passengers.
