At this moment in time, Istanbul Airport remains the busiest airport in Europe, as per data from RadarBox.com.
The flight-tracking company provides a top 10 list of busiest airports within Europe, which we will take a look at, as well as how the airport in the Turkish capital has been performing.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Istanbul Airport Is The Busiest In Europe…
As you can see from the data above, the top 10 is as follows, based on a seven-day rolling average provided by the flight tracking company:
- Istanbul – 1390 average daily movements.
- London Heathrow – 1266 average daily movements.
- Amsterdam – 1234 average daily movements.
- Paris – 1222 average daily movements.
- Frankfurt – 1120 average daily movements.
- Madrid – 1060 average daily movements.
- Barcelona – 868 average daily movements.
- Munich – 767 average daily movements.
- London Gatwick – 735 average daily movements.
- Rome – 689 average daily movements.
It remains clear that Istanbul Airport has a clear gap ahead of Heathrow, but the gap between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th is pretty tight at the moment.
How Has The Airport Performed in the Last Four Weeks?
Between April 18-25, Istanbul Airport handled 1,480 movements, which represents a staggering 40.02% increase compared to the same period last year.
Such a figure is also 200 movements higher than in the same period in 2019.
Below is the last four weeks’ worth of data from the airport:
| Date | 2019 Numbers | 2022 Numbers | 2023 Numbers | Percentage Difference (2023 vs. 2022) |
| March 21-27 | 26 movements | 934 movements | 1301 movements | +39.29% |
| March 28-April 4 | 34 movements | 980 movements | 1346 movements | +37.35% |
| April 4-11 | 127 movements | 1083 movements | 1344 movements | +24.10% |
| April 11-18 | 1178 movements | 1006 movements | 1392 movements | +38.37% |
What we can see from the data is that Istanbul Airport is consistently performing better than in the same periods in 2022 and 2019, dubbed as the pre-COVID era as well.
Overall…
Spurred on by continued growth with Turkish Airlines, as well as the busy Summer 2023 season well underway, it remains clear that Istanbul Airport is in a strong position.
Looking ahead, it’s going to be interesting to see how much further they can take such average daily movements.
But for now, all eyes are on the airport to see how they perform during the peak periods of the Summer 2023 season.
