Istanbul Airport ranked busiest in Europe

ISTANBUL

Istanbul Airport has been ranked as the busiest airport in Europe with 1,310 flights between Aug. 24 and 30, according to data from EUROCONTROL.

According to the weekly report, which also compares the flight performances before the pandemic, many airports in Europe lagged far behind 2019 figures, while Istanbul Airport increased its flights by 2 percent.

The country’s mega airport with 1,310 flights in a week was followed by Paris’s Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London Heathrow airports. Antalya Airport, on the other hand, ranked as the seventh busiest in Europe with 944 daily flights, increasing its flights by 1 percent compared to 2019.

Istanbul Airport served a total of 16.7 million passengers in the first seven months of 2022, up from 11.8 million in the same period of 2021.

Domestic passenger traffic at the airport grew by 83 percent from January through July to 8.5 million people, while the international passenger tally increased by 120 percent on an annual basis to 8.2 million.

Türkiye’s airports served a total of 8 million domestic and 13.3 million international travelers in July alone, Transport Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu said, adding that cargo traffic also increased 13.8 percent year-on-year to 429,734 tons.

Meanwhile, Atlanta remained the world’s busiest airport with 4.75 million seats, but this is 1 percent fewer seats than last month.

The top three airports remain the same in terms of ranking as last month, with Atlanta, Dubai and Dallas/Fort Worth taking the top three spots.

Dubai also retained its position as the world’s busiest international airport in August, with international capacity virtually unchanged from last month at 4.09 million seats.