Airports, Rome, Copenhagen & Co. challenges between ITA-Lufthansa and Sas-Skyteam

A welcome return and unstoppable growth: these, in a nutshell, are the two big highlights of the annual ranking of the major European airports by number of passengers, compiled by lining up data from Aci Europe (the association that groups almost all continental ports of call).

In 2023, in fact, London Heathrow returns to the top of the rankings after being temporarily overtaken, due to the long post-Covid recovery, by Istanbul International Airport last year.

Rome Fiumicino, on the other hand, is making great strides year after year and overtaking the Munich airport.

Two signs that, combined, with the collapse of Scandinavian airports and the growth of Spanish airports allow us to draw an evolution of the European market that will have new implications with the future passages of Ita in Star Alliance (likely) and Sas in Skyteam (certain).

Pending Iberia's acquisition of Air Europa, however, the alliance Oneworld enjoys excellent health with leadership from Heathrow (home of British) and Madrid.

The ranking

Here are the top ten positions by number of passengers during 2023:

1. London Heathrow: 79.2 million passengers
2. Istanbul International Airport: 76.2 million
3. Paris Charles de Gaulle: 67.4 million
4. Amsterdam Schiphol: 61.9 million
5. Madrid Barajas: 60.2 million
6. Frankfurt: 59.4 million
7. Barcelona El Prat: 49.9 million
8. London Gatwick: 40.9 million
9. Rome Fiumicino: 40.5 million
10. Monaco: 37 million

This ranking, compiled by Wouter Dewulf, professor in air transport and economics at the University of Antwerp in the Netherlands, highlights how the top ten over the past five years (as of 2019) always includes the same players with the exception of Rome Fiumicino itself.

The Fiumicino shot

In the year before the pandemic outbreak, in fact, the Italian airport was 11th, but by 2022 Fiumicino had already entered the top 10 thanks in part to the collapse of the Moscow's Sheremetyevo, Russia's largest airport. During 2023, on the other hand, Rome's growth led to overtaking Munich and nearly breaking even with London Gatwick.

A further step forward, then, for the hub of Ita Airways which-despite still being negative compared to pre Covid numbers-is increasing passenger numbers by combining service quality and quantity; thanks in part to Ita expanding its network.

Fiumicino posted an astounding +38% passengers over the previous year: a result that sees it as the best airport (among large hubs) for annual growth over 2022.

The top five, however, closes with Madrid Barajas (60.2 million passengers and +18.9% compared to 2022). The Iberian hub's role in transatlantic traffic allowed it to outpace Frankfurt again in 2023 (59.4 million passengers, still steady at -15.9% compared to 2019).

LH's intentions on Rome

Overtaking Munich is significant given that Lufthansa's second hub. continues to recover slowly: once the German giant controls Italy's national airline, Lufthansa will have to confront the fact that Fiumicino will be its "second most important airport" at least in terms of global numbers.

Both Frankfurt and Munich, in fact, continue to record very low numbers than in 2019, and Lufthansa failed to restart air traffic over all of Germany once the pandemic was archived.

This is another reason why it will be important to understand in the future, beyond the ITA-Lufthansa marriage, whether the German giant is interested in developing more leisure and long-haul traffic at Fiumicino or whether it will have plans to replenish passengers its two German hubs by routing more flights from Rome.

Alongside Fiumicino, however, is the huge leap in ahead of Istanbul: seventh in 2019, first in 2022, and now in second place.

Head-to-head Istanbul-Heathrow

After last year's success, in fact, Istanbul again cedes the scepter to London Heathrow, which is historically the busiest airport in Europe.

Last year Istanbul had set a personal record with 64, 4 million passengers, while Heathrow stopped at 61 million. This year, yet another Turkish airport record with 76 million was not enough because the British airport came close to the 80 million it had already reached in 2019.

Scrolling down the list to the top 30 airports, however, there is no shortage of surprises. If Moscow Sheremetyevo drops to 11th place, up go the Lisbon (12), Dublin (13), Paris Orly (14) e Palma de Mallorca (16).

In 16th place is. Vienna, followed by Zurich - two other Lufthansa Group hubs - Athens and Manchester. Closing out the top 20 is London Stansted airport. In 21st is Copenahgen, followed by Milan Malpensa (26 million passengers), Oslo, Berlin and Malaga.

From number 26 to 30 are Brussels, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Moscow Domodedovo and Dusseldorf.

Trends of the new era

The top 10 airports, in each case, are growing faster (+21.6%) than the other 20 (+16.6%) that follow over the course of a single year-a telling sign of how large legacy companies and the hub and spoke model are quickly returning to regain a leadership role at the European level.

The same trend is justified by the fact that the total passengers of the top 10 European airports far exceeds the total of airports between 11th and 30th. In fact, the airlines that are growing the most are. British Airways, Turkish Airlines, Air France, KLM, Iberia, Lufthansa, Ryanair, easyJet and ITA Airways.

But the leisure (and low-cost) sector is also greatly increasing its market base. Just look at the growths in Lisbon, Athens, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca.

Downhill, however, the airports of Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm because of the Sas crisis: but in the coming months it will have to be seen how the Scandinavian carrier's move to Skyteam could put Northern European hubs back in the game.

Also Dusseldorf, in Germany, suffers greatly from the post-Covid restart. Among the causes: the Eurowings growth difficulties, the low-cost home-grown Lufthansa, the recent farewell of Ryanair, which closed its base at the German airport, and the absence of long-haul flights by Singapore Airlines and Delta, which have not resumed their long-haul operations from 2020 onward.