In 2024, the total number of passengers travelling by air in the EU was 1.1 billion, an increase of 8.3% compared with 2023 (973 million).

Data show that in 2024, all EU countries registered an increase in the number of passengers carried by air compared with 2023. Hungary (+19.2%), Czechia (+18.9%) and Estonia (+17.8%) reported the largest increases, while the lowest ones were in Sweden (+1.3%), Bulgaria (+3.8%) and France and Ireland (both +4.6%).

This information comes from data on air transport published by Eurostat. The article presents a selection of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained articles on air passenger transport statistics and on air freight transport.

Increase in air freight and mail transport

Total air freight and mail transport in the EU also saw an increase of 8.7% in 2024 compared with 2023. It was driven by a 10.8% growth in extra-EU transport, while intra-EU transport was almost stable at +0.1% and domestic transport fell by 4.3%.

At national level, Hungary (+65.9%), Czechia (+43.7%) and Greece (+36.7%) recorded the highest increases, while only Poland (-3.6%) and Latvia (-2.7%) registered declines.

Top 9 airports for air passenger transport remain the same

In 2024, among the 10 EU airports recording the biggest numbers of passengers carried were Paris/Charles de Gaulle, with 70.3 million passengers (+4.3%), Amsterdam/Schiphol, 66.8 million passengers (+8.0%), Madrid/Barajas, 66.1 million (+9.9%), Frankfurt/Main, 61.5 million (+3.7%) and Barcelona/El Prat, which recorded 54.9 million (+10.3%). 

Roma/Fiumicino placed 6th with 48.7 million passengers, but saw the highest increase among the top 10 airports (+20.8%). Athinai/Eleftherios Venizelos moved ahead and replaced Paris-Orly in 2024, securing the 10th place thanks to a significant passenger growth compared with 2023 (+19.6%).