Europe’s busiest airport in 2022: Istanbul Airport

According to data released by the European Air Navigation Safety Organisation (Eurocontrol), the busiest airport in Europe for the last year was Istanbul Airport. Istanbul Airport had an average of 1,156 flights each day of the year 2022, the data explained.

This comes from the report that Eurocontrol has recently published of 2022, explaining the European airline traffic and airports.

The report – comparing 2019 to 2022

Written in the report, which made a comparison between 2022 and 2019 – before the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic – total flight numbers at Istanbul Airport had been the only airport in Europe to catch up to the number of daily flights before the pandemic.

Istanbul was followed by Amsterdam with 1,140 flights daily, then Paris with 1,122 daily flights, Frankfurt with a total of 1,048 flights, and finally London with 1,042 daily flights.

Why is Istanbul Airport so important?

Sitting along the Black Sea, Istanbul Airport has become one of the most important transit centres in Europe for flight travel since it was officially opened late in October 2018, before it was made fully operational in April of 2019.

This is a reflection of Istanbul’s emergence as a major hub for transport, given it’s position as the largest city that straddles across both Europe and Asia.

Future phases of the airport

In the current phase of the airport, the airport in Istanbul can handle up to 90 million passengers a year; this is a high figure but it is nothing to the potential capacity the airport has once all phases have been completed of 200 million – this would make it the world’s largest and busiest airport.

Completion at last

The expected completion date for all four phases of construction and future expansions of the airport, including the addition of six new runways, has been set for 2028.