The first month of this year saw the number of passengers travelling through airports in Europe increase.
According to the data, a number of airports surpassed the levels of passenger traffic recorded in 2019, while others expect to record higher figures in 2024.
The airports
Last month, more than 18.6 million passengers were welcomed by the Aena network airports in Spain, which comprise of a total of 46 airports. This is 10% higher than the numbers recorded in January 2023.
Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport recorded the highest number of travelers last month, as they reached a total of almost 4.8 million passengers.
Meanwhile, 3.5 million passengers were recorded at the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport, 1.3 million passengers at Malaga-Costa de Sol and almost 1.3 million passengers at Gran Canaria.
Tenerife Sur, Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernandez and Palma de Mallorca Airport recorded 1.2 million, 958,088 and 889,815 passengers, respectively.
Each of these airports also recorded a greater number of passengers as compared to the figures recorded in January last year.
Meanwhile, the previous month saw Frankfurt Airport (FRA) handle about 4.1 million passengers, which is an 11% increase as compared to the same period in 2023.
But, passenger traffic remained about 12.6% lower than the numbers recorded in January 2019, despite year-on-year growth.
Fraport
Other than Frankfurt Airport, there was also a rise in passenger traffic on other airports part of Fraport’s international portfolio.
There was a 9.5% year-on-year growth in total traffic at airports managed by Fraport, as the numbers reached 8.9 million passengers last month.
Almost 1.48 million travelers were also recorded at Berlin Airport (BER), which is 13% higher than January of last year.
The busiest day of the month was January 7th, when the number of passengers rose to 63,613. During January 24, Copenhagen Airport (CPH) recorded a total of 1.7 million travelers.
This is a year-on-year increase of 7%. London, Stockholm and Oslo were the favorite destinations of CPH passengers in January.
But, the routes to Asia and Middle Eastern destinations recorded the highest passenger traffic increase, as they rose by 47% and 36%, respectively.
More details
The largest airport in Iceland, Keflavik Airport saw a total of 451,000 passengers in January 2024. The busiest day was January 2nd, with a total of 22,611 passengers passing through the airport.
The most popular destinations during this period were London, New York, Copenhagen, Manchester and Paris.
The most departures were made by British citizens, as they contributed 21%, while US citizens came next at 19%. The third spot was taken up by German nationals, followed by Dutch and Chinese.
Riga Airport (RIX) also recorded a rise in passenger traffic in the first month of 2024. Almost 420,000 passengers were welcomed, which is 5,000 more than last year in the same period.
The most passengers were handled by AirBaltic, the national airline, which is around 222,000. Ryanair took the second spot, as the Irish low-cost airline handled 132,000 passengers.
There was also a surge in passenger traffic at European airports throughout 2023, with some surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
