Istanbul Airport became the busiest European airport in January after passenger traffic across the European airport network in the first month of the year came the closest ever to a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels, the group Airports Council International (ACI) said Wednesday.
The monthly report showed Istanbul Airport going back to being the busiest European airport in January – a position that was briefly taken by London Heathrow in the final months of 2022.
Passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by 69% in January compared with the same month last year, when omicron-related travel restrictions halted the recovery, ACI said.
When compared with January 2019 levels, passenger traffic in 2023 stood at -11%, the best monthly performance and thus closest to a full recovery since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it noted.
"The year 2023 is off to a pretty good start thanks to the continued resilience of passenger demand in the face of higher airfares and wider inflationary pressures across the economy," said ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec.
About "42% of Europe's airports have now recovered their pre-pandemic traffic volumes," Jankovec noted, adding the group expects more airports "to hit the same milestone in the coming months."
He said continued capacity expansion by ultra-low-cost carriers and the recent lifting of pre-departure testing requirements for travelers from China "should keep driving the recovery forward for airports."
"For now, our immediate focus is on getting ready for the peak Summer season," Jankovec added.
Türkiye 'very close' to full recovery
The EU+ Market – which includes the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and EEA countries – led the growth, with passenger traffic growing 82% in January compared with the same month last year. The highest increases were recorded in the United Kingdom (+128%), Ireland (+115%) and Greek Cyprus (+111%).
Compared with pre-pandemic levels, 11 national markets achieved or exceeded a full recovery in January, the report showed, with airports in Portugal and Greek Cyprus ranked first, while Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Germany stood at the bottom.
"This reflects a mix of factors including the impact of the war in Ukraine and the lack of penetration or loss of Low-Cost traffic," ACI said.
The impact of the war kept weighing on performance – with the loss of all commercial air traffic for Ukrainian airports and passenger volumes decreasing by 9.4% at Russian airports compared to a year ago.
Meanwhile, traffic at airports in Armenia (+70%), Georgia (+49.2%), and to a lesser extent Türkiye (+47.9%) benefited from war-related traffic shifts.
Despite passenger volumes decreasing at airports, passenger traffic in Russia remained above its pre-pandemic volumes in January 2023, up 6.6%, with movements shifting to domestic and non-EU+ markets.
Airports in Albania (+86.2%), Armenia (+80.9%), Kosovo (+39.6%) and Serbia (+28.3%) far exceeded their pre-pandemic volumes, ACI said.
Airports in the major market of Türkiye (-2.6%) came very close to a full recovery, it noted.
Istanbul reclaims title
The report showed passenger traffic at the Majors – top five European airports – grew by 73.5% in January compared to the same month last year.
It remained 10.6% below pre-pandemic – January 2019 levels – an improvement compared to the preceding month (December 2022 at -12.1%), with the positive impact of the re-opening of the Chinese market still to materialize, ACI said.
Istanbul reclaimed its status as the busiest European airport in January with 5.64 million passengers, ACI said, marking a 62.6% increase over the same month last year.
The traffic allowed the Turkish hub to exceed its pre-pandemic volumes by 8.1%, the data showed.
Istanbul Airport was followed by London Heathrow (5.49 million) and Paris-CDG (4.72 million).
Volumes increased by 111.2% and 73.2%, respectively, for the British and French hubs compared to the same month last year but remained 7.4% and 12.1% below pre-pandemic levels.
Madrid (4.43 million) and Amsterdam-Schiphol (3.9 million) ranked fourth and fifth.
The performance of the Spanish hub reflects the significant penetration of low-cost carriers and its lower exposure to Asia, the report said.
Along with Istanbul, Madrid was the only major exceeding pre-pandemic volumes (+1%).
The report said passenger traffic performance of other large airports in January reflected a recovery still largely driven by intra-European and transatlantic routes, dominated by leisure demand and characterized by significant, but selective, capacity expansion from ultra-low-cost carriers.
Accordingly, Lisbon (+13.3%), Athens (+3.9%), Dublin (+2%) and Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (+1.3%) all exceeded their pre-pandemic volumes.
Meanwhile, Berlin (-45.9%), Munich (-28%), London-Gatwick (-26.9%) and Frankfurt (-21.3%) remained well below.