The umbrella organisation for European airports, ACI Europe, has published the 2024 air traffic and passenger statistics for European airports. According to ACI statistics, the total number of passengers at airports in Europe last year exceeded for the first time the number of passengers in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Finland, passenger volumes at Finavia’s airports are still 25 per cent behind the passenger volumes in 2019. Growth in Finland is also slower compared to the other Nordic countries. In 2024, passenger numbers at the airports of the Norwegian airport company Avinor amounted to 95% of the 2019 numbers. At Swedavia airports in Sweden, that figure was 81%. A total of 19.6 million passengers travelled via Finavia’s 20 airports in 2024. Of this figure, 16.3 million travelled via Helsinki Airport. In 2019, the number of passengers was 26 million.
At airports in Europe, air travel increased by +7.4% year-on-year and has already exceeded the 2019 level overall, with passenger volumes on average +1.8% higher than in 2019. According to ACI statistics, many airports in Europe have already exceeded their previous passenger records. Of the airports in Europe, Turkey (+23.1%), Italy (+17.0%) and Spain (+13.0%) have clearly exceeded the passenger volumes for 2019.
“In addition to COVID-19, Finland’s situation is also affected by its geopolitical location: Finland has clearly been one of the slowest recovering air traffic markets in Europe post-COVID-19. At the moment, the closure of Russian airspace is having a significant impact on the number of Asian flights and transfer passengers,” says Petri Vuori, Finavia's Senior Vice President responsible for route development.
The umbrella organisation for airports, ACI World, expects global air travel to grow significantly in the coming decades – up to 17.7 billion by 2043 and 22.3 billion by 2053, which is almost 2.4 times the number of passengers in 2024.
Over the next thirty years, growth is expected to be stronger in international passenger traffic than in domestic traffic, both globally and in Europe. International, cross-border air travel across Europe grew by +8.8% last year. Passenger volumes have also increased in Finland, especially in international traffic. In Finland, domestic passenger traffic increased by only +2.5% in 2024, remaining -6.3% below the pre-pandemic 2019 level.
Leisure travel increases air traffic
The year 2024 also saw major structural changes at Europe’s airports since COVID-19. Leisure travel and tourism demand related to visiting friends and relatives (VFR) are increasing.
The increase in the demand for leisure travel was reflected in the increase in passenger volumes at tourism-driven airports in Europe, such as Malta (+14.8%), Croatia (+13.7%), Italy (+11.0%) and Greece (+10.1%), compared to the passenger volumes in 2024 and 2023. Leisure travel has become an increasingly important factor determining the growth of air traffic. This phenomenon can also be observed in Finland.
Of all Finavia’s airports, Rovaniemi increased its passenger volumes the most in 2024 (+29%) and this growth was strongly driven by leisure travel. Passenger volumes increased at all airports in Lapland compared to the previous year: After Rovaniemi, the largest growth was seen at Ivalo Airport (+12.8%), followed by Kittilä (+9.9%) and Kuusamo (+4.8%).
“Finland is echoing the trend of increasing leisure tourism seen in Europe. For example, the number of passengers during the Christmas season at tourism-driven airports in Lapland has already increased by 50–65% compared to 2019 levels. Business travel, on the other hand, has only recovered to 50–60% of the 2019 figures," says Vuori.
TOP 5 airports in Europe by passenger numbers
| Airport | 2024* | 2023* | 2019* |
| London Heathrow | 83.9 | 79.2 | 80.9 |
| Istanbul | 80.1 | 76.0 | 79.9 |
| Paris, Charles de Gaulle | 70.3 | 67.4 | 76.2 |
| Amsterdam | 66.8 | 61.9 | 72.0 |
| Madrid | 66.1 | 60.2 | 61.7 |
*) million passengers
TOP 5 airports in Finland by passenger number
| Airport | 2024 | 2023 | 2019 |
| Helsinki Airport | 16.3 million | 13.3 million | 21.9 million |
| Rovaniemi | 948,000 | 735,000 | 661,000 |
| Oulu | 580,000 | 554,000 | 1.1 million |
| Kittilä | 412,000 | 375,000 | 363,000 |
| Turku | 255,000 | 233,000 | 453,000 |
Sources:
ACI Europe: European airport passenger traffic finally exceeds annual pre-Covid levels in 2024
ACI World: ACI World projects 22.3 billion passengers by 2053
Finavia’s statistics: Traffic statistics | Finavia
