Number of air passengers up almost a quarter in 2023

In 2023, the total number of passengers travelling by air in the EU was 973 million, an increase of 19.3% compared with 2022 (816 million).

Data show that in 2023, all EU countries registered an increase in the number of passengers carried by air transport compared with 2022. Passengers carried are passengers on a particular flight counted once only and not repeatedly on each individual stage of that flight. It excludes direct transit passengers. Malta (+33.3%), Slovenia (+30.9%) and Czechia (+29.4%) reported the largest increases, while the lowest ones were in Estonia (+7.9%), Greece (+9.6%) and Lithuania (+12.3%).

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

Source dataset: avia_paoc

Small decline for air freight and mail transport

Total air freight and mail transport in the EU however fell by 5.2% in 2023 compared with 2022. Domestic, intra- and extra-EU transport all registered decreases, -4.1%, -5.0% and -5.3%, respectively.

At national level, the decrease was recorded in Slovakia (-38.6%), followed by Estonia (-22.6%) and Luxembourg (-18.0%), while the highest increase was registered in Spain (+17.9), Malta (+17.6%) and Finland (+9.0%).

Top 5 airports saw significant increases in passengers

In 2023, the top 5 EU airports remained the same as in 2022, but all recorded significant increases. Paris/Charles de Gaulle registered 67.4 million passengers carried (+17.3%), Amsterdam/Schiphol 61.9 million passengers (+17.9%), Madrid/Barajas 60.1 million (+20.4%), Frankfurt/Main 59.3 million (+21.5%) and Barcelona/El Prat recorded 49.8 million (+20.6%).

Roma/Fiumicino placed 6th with 40.3 million passengers carried, but saw the highest increase in the top 10 airports (+38.2%). Paris-Orly dropped from the 8th to the 10th place, registering the smallest percentage increase in number of passengers carried in 2023 compared with 2022 (+10.6%).

Source dataset: avia_paoa

To mark International Civil Aviation Day (7 December), Eurostat invites you to click on the image below to access an interactive visualisation on air passenger transport in 2023. You can select airports from the map or the list to discover the top 5 routes, number of flights, number of passengers and national/international traffic in 2023.