Commercial flights in EU up 5.8% y/y in 2024, still below pre-pandemic levels
In 2024, 6.7 million commercial flights were recorded in the European Union, 5.8 per cent more compared with 2023 (6.3 million), EU statistics agency Eurostat said on January 20.
In spite of this increase, the number of flights remained below the pre-pandemic levels in 2019 (seven million), Eurostat said.
Non-scheduled commercial flights (charter flights and other special flights) constituted 8.7 per cent of all flights in 2024.
The summer months – June, July, and August – recorded the highest number of non-scheduled flights (10.3 per cent, 10.7 per cent, and 10.1 per cent, respectively).
The highest count of commercial flights in 2024 was recorded in Amsterdam Schiphol airport in the Netherlands – 484 000.
It was followed by Paris-Charles de Gaulle (463 000) in France and Frankfurt/Main (437 000) in Germany.
Among the 10 airports with the biggest numbers of commercial flights, the highest shares of non-scheduled flights were recorded in Athens (5.5 per cent) in Greece, Wien (4.6 per cent) in Austria and Madrid (4.5 per cent) in Spain, Eurostat said.

(Main photo: Pablo Barrios)