European airport trade body, ACI EUROPE today released its traffic report for January 2026.

Passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by +4.6% in January when compared to the same month last year.

Airports in the non-EU+ market significantly outperformed with +8.8% growth year on year, whereas those in the EU+ market saw volumes expanding by a solid +3.6%.

As is now structurally embedded into the new aviation market dynamics following the COVID-19 crisis, the gains were markedly driven by international passenger traffic (+5.5%), with domestic passengers increasing by +1.8% and remaining -8.1% below pre pandemic (2019) levels.

ISTANBUL TOPS RANKING FOR ABSOLUTE GROWTH

Istanbul (+6.4%) replaced capacity-constrained London Heathrow (+2.2%) as the busiest European airport in January, welcoming 6.9 million passengers (vs. 6.5 million passengers for London Heathrow), with an average of over 220,000 passengers per day.

In another shift, Madrid (+3.5%) took the third spot from Paris CDG (+0.7%), with the French hub being followed by Amsterdam (-9.1%) whose performance reflects the disruptive impact of severe weather at the beginning of the month.

While remaining outside of the top 5 league, Frankfurt (+4.9%) saw dynamic passenger growth. The German hub came in the seventh spot after Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (+14.3%), which registered the best performance amongst Major airports.  

FREIGHT AND MOVEMENTS

January 2026 saw a dynamic growth in freight traffic at Europe’s airports, with an increase of +6.4% over the same month last year. Amongst the top 10 European airports for freight traffic all but one posted gains year on year. Liège (+18.1%), Istanbul (+17.1%) and Paris-CDG (+12.5%) saw double digit growth. In absolute terms, Istanbul, Paris-CDG and Frankfurt shifted the biggest volumes of freight in January.

Aircraft movements saw a moderate increase (+1.8%) when compared to January 2025, at the same time still registering in the negatives compared to pre pandemic (2019) levels at -6.9%.

The integral version of the report (four pages) is attached to this AVIONEWS.