The start of the year 2022 was a bit complicated because of COVID-19’s variant ‘Omicron’ and the Ukraine war. Despite the off-start, the year 2022 proved to be beneficial for Europe’s leading air hubs. Last year five major airports of the continent handled over 50 million travelers. Which convenience proved to be best and came out on top? The answer to this is very clear after seeing data from Airports Council International.
In this brief yet comprehensive article, we have summed up all about the five busiest airports in Europe with their details. Let’s dive in to learn about them without any further ado.
Istanbul
Turkey’s new Istanbul airport (IST) opened in April 2019. Since then, this convenience has become the chief conveyance hub mainly because of its appropriate location at the border of both Europe and the Middle East. In the year 2022, this facility appears at the top of the list for the busiest airport by passenger number. It provided its service to about 64.3 million passengers. That’s a huge figure, folks!
The convenience is affected by the corona pandemic, and its capacity level with respect to passenger numbers decreased, yet it’s one of Europe’s five busiest airports. The airport will be looking for similarly remarkable and even better numbers this year as in the preceding year; its strong performance got it within 6.2% of pre-pandemic traffic volumes.
London Heathrow
London Heathrow, the leading international airport in London, England, was recorded as the second busiest airport in Europe with regard to passenger numbers last year. Despite 23.8% less number of passengers compared to 2019, it made its way to become the second busiest airport in 2022. It facilitated about 61.6 million passengers.
With the increase in traffic, Europe’s second largest airport hopes to reach the total number of passengers before the Corona pandemic.
Paris Charles de Gaulle
Europe’s third busiest airport in 2022 was Paris Charles de Gaulle, better known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG. This airport mainly serves Paris, the capital city and the tourist hub of France. This facility served about 76.2 million travelers back in 2019, and with a deficit of 24.5%, it facilitated about 57.5 million travelers in 2022.
In October, Simple Flying announced that CDG had the most scheduled passenger airline in the world. CDG is still working on its recovery, hoping that in 2023 it will serve as many passengers as possible.
Amsterdam Schiphol
Netherlands’ main international airport Amsterdam Schiphol appears fourth on the list of Europe’s busiest airports in 2022. Due to persistent employee shortages, the Dutch facility had difficulty controlling the massive amounts of unmet travel demand.
Amsterdam Schiphol introduced passenger caps to reduce pressure created by canceling thousands of flights and delays due to staff shortages, strikes, and many other difficulties.
Despite the restricted capacities, Amsterdam Schiphol managed to control about 52.5 million travelers in 2022, with a decrease of 26.8% compared to 2019.
Madrid Barajas
Number 5 on the list is the Madrid Barajas. It’s the top international airport in Madrid, Spain, and Europe’s Largest airport that became the second out of the top 5 airports, making the passenger total in 2022 closest to that in 2019 (61.8 million travelers). This year is most probable to witness the likes of Aerolíneas Argentinas and Korean Air boost their presence in Madrid.
