Name: Flying high: What are Europes fastest-growing airports?
Uploaded: 2025-12-11T20:35:17.384Z
Duration: 1 min 30 s
Description: Medium-sized cities saw the fastest increases in passenger volumes, with Polish and Italian hubs dominating the list.

Medium-sized cities saw the fastest increases in passenger volumes, with Polish and Italian hubs dominating the list.

Berlin

London Heathrow Airport handled a record 84 million passengers in 2024, maintaining its position as Europe's busiest airport. Other major hubs like Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Schiphol, and Madrid Barajas also saw high passenger volumes, contributing to a total of over 1 billion air travelers across the EU in 2024.

Growth continued into 2025, with passenger numbers rising by 4.3% across most of Europe in the first half of the year. Central Europe experienced the fastest growth, particularly in Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary, while Moldova and Bosnia-Herzegovina saw significant increases outside the EU. Medium-sized airports such as Trieste and Bournemouth led the growth, and Rome-Fiumicino recorded the largest rise among major hubs.

Flying high: What are Europe's fastest-growing airports?

Which airports are the busiest in Europe? There's one airport in Europe that handles as many passengers as the entire population of Germany in a single year. And that's London Heathrow. Brexit clearly hasn't dulled traffic there. 2024 saw a record 84 million passengers and growth continued through 2025. Germany's Charles de Gaulle was second with 70 million travellers, followed closely by Amsterdam Hippel and Madrid Barajas. For the aviation industry, 2024 was a blockbuster year with more than 1 billion passengers across the EU alone. 2025 is shaping up to be even better. In the first half, passenger volumes across most of Europe grew by 4.3%. The fastest-growing region, Central Europe, plus 19% in Slovakia, 15% in Poland, 14% in Hungary. And outside the EU, the numbers are even more striking, plus 49% in Moldova and 31% in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Medium-sized airports are leading the growth with Trieste in Italy and Bournemouth in the UK at the top, while Rome-Fiumicino saw the biggest rise among the continent's major hubs, plus 6.5%.

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