Eurocontrol: Istanbul Airport became Europe’s busiest airport in February

March 23, 2023

Traffic in February 2023 was 22.3% higher than traffic in February 2022. Network traffic was in line with the latest EUROCONTROL baseline scenario.

The war in Ukraine continues to affect overflights in several countries. Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Latvia have lost traffic, whereas Armenia, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina have gained. The EUROCONTROL NM continues to help manage the aviation crisis caused by the war.

‘On average’ the network saw 23,004 flights/day in February. The peak day was Friday 06 February (25,831 flights) with traffic at +21% of 2022 levels.

Ryanair was the busiest carrier in February with on average 2,181 flights/day, +13.0% higher than its 2022 traffic level. Next were Turkish Airlines (1,309 flights/day), easyJet (1,184 flights/day), Lufthansa (941 flights/day) and British Airways (752 flights/day).

The busiest airport was Istanbul/iGA (1,269 flights/day) followed by London/Heathrow (1,168 flights/day), Paris/Charles de Gaulle (1,115 flights/day), Amsterdam/Schiphol (1,051 flights/day) and Madrid/Barajas (996 flights/day).

Network departure and arrival punctuality remained stable at similar levels to January. Punctuality on the SW and SE axis was consistent with the network level.

The network (average) available turnaround time remained slightly higher than scheduled, notably on the French strike days where ATFM delays extended the turnaround time.

There were 669,076 minutes of ATFM delay in February. En-route delays accounted for 52.8% of these ATFM delays, and airports for 47.2%.

The average en-route ATFM delay per flight for the network was 0.55 min in February.

Flow measures were applied mainly due to weather, ATC disruptions and ATC staffing issues.

Source: EUROCONTROL Monthly Network Operations Report – Overview February 2023
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