Passenger traffic in Europe maintained a positive trajectory during the first quarter of 2025, although growth has decelerated compared to previous years, signaling a stabilization in traffic recovery post-COVID-19, the ACI Europe stated in a communication.
The increase in passenger volume from January to March 2025 was entirely driven by international traffic, which rose by 5.7%, while domestic traffic remained stable compared to the same period last year.
Compared to pre-pandemic levels (first quarter of 2019), international passenger traffic advanced by 8.9% in the first quarter of 2025, whereas domestic traffic remained 12.8% below those levels.
During the first quarter, traffic demonstrated signs of slowing, with annual growth rates of 6.9% in January slowing to 3.4% in February and further to 3% in March. The ACI Europe highlighted that Easter occurred in April this year.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe, noted that “transatlantic demand is weakening” and anticipates that “the European portion of this demand will be redirected to other markets.”
“We remain confident for the summer season. The big question is what will happen from the next winter onwards, given the unprecedented macroeconomic uncertainty we face as a result of the Trump administration’s attack on the global multilateral trading system,” he added, referring to the trade policies of the U.S. President.
“This means that beyond geopolitics and the current supply pressures resulting from aircraft delivery and maintenance delays, as well as capacity constraints at infrastructure level and the airlines’ focus on yield rather than capacity expansion, we may see downward pressures on demand materialize,” he added.
Within the European Union, where passenger traffic recorded an average growth of 4.1% in the first quarter, there were differences in performance among national markets.
The largest increases in traffic were registered by airports in Slovakia (+15.9%), Poland (+15.4%), Hungary (+14.7%), Malta (+13.9%), Lithuania (+13%), Croatia (+9.6%), Romania (+9.2%), and Greece (+8.8%).
Conversely, passenger traffic decreased in Iceland (-2.5%), Sweden (-2.2%), and Ireland (-0.5%), and remained weak in Germany and Austria (both +1.1%), as well as in Switzerland (+1.6%) and the United Kingdom (+1.7%).
Among other major EU markets, Italy (+6.6%) led, followed by Spain (+4.5%) and France (+4.2%).
