The sky’s the limit – what EU country saw the biggest increase in air passengers in 2024?

Hungary reported the biggest percentage increase in air passengers in the EU in 2024, compared to the previous year, with a 19.2% rise, year-on-year.

Other countries to report a significant increase in air passengers included Czechia (+18.9%) and Estonia (+17.8%), the data showed, while the smallest increases were reported in Sweden (+1.3%), Bulgaria (+3.8%), France (+4.6%) and Ireland (+4.6%), according to Eurostat data.

All EU countries reported a year-on-year increase in air passengers in 2024, compared to the previous year, with the total number of air passengers across the EU rising by 8.3%.

Some 1.1 billion passengers took to the skies across the EU in 2024, compared to 973 million in 2023. Around a quarter of these (260 million) flew in or out of Spain.

Busiest airports

Paris/Charles de Gaulle remained the EU’s busiest airport in 2024, with 70.3 million passengers, a 4.3% increase compared to the previous year.

In second place was Amsterdam/Schiphol, with 66.8 million passengers, a 8.0% increase, followed by Madrid/Barajas in third, with 66.1 million passengers, a 9.9% increase.

Other airports to rank highly included Frankfurt/Main, 61.5 million passengers (+3.7%), Barcelona/El Prat, 54.9 million passengers (+10.3%) and Roma/Fiumicino 48.7 million passengers (+20.8%).

Elsewhere in the top ten, Athinai/Eleftherios Venizelos overtook Paris-Orly to take tenth spot, with the Greek airport reporting a 19.6% increase in passengers, year-on-year. Read more here.

Air Passenger Numbers by EU Member State, 2024