Europe's aviation market

European aviation at a glance

• Busiest airport: London Heathrow
• Top airline: Ryanair
• Country with most international airline capacity: UK and Spain

Airline capacity in Europe

How much airline capacity is there in Europe this month?

• Overall capacity in Europe grew by 5.8% vs March 2025 to 135.1m.
• International capacity grew by 7%, whilst domestic capacity increased by 1.3% year-on-year.
• Low-cost carriers increased capacity by 6.5% year-on-year, while mainline carriers grew by 5.3% and now represent 62% of the market.

*As of July 2025, international capacity is reported on a two-way basis (previously one-way departing)

Which European country has most airline capacity (domestic + international)?

• The UK and Spain are the largest markets, each offering 14.4 million seats in March 2026. This represents capacity growth of 3.2% and 2.8% respectively compared with March 2025.
• Capacity grew at the fastest rate in Türkiye by 10.3%, with an additional 974k seats.

Which European country has most domestic airline capacity?

• Türkiye and Spain are the largest domestic markets, with 4.73m seats and 4.66m seats respectively in March 2026. Domestic capacity in Türkiye increased by 9.1% vs last year.
• Most of the other domestic markets continue to contract, with domestic capacity in Norway decreasing by the greatest rate of 5.2%.

Top 10 busiest airports in Europe (departing seats)

Which is the busiest airport in Europe?

• London Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe this month, with 4.3m seats, increasing by 1.5% vs last year.
  
• A close second, Istanbul grew by 7.6% year-on-year to 4.2m seats.
• Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen shows the fastest growth, with airlines increasing capacity by 15.3% year-on-year.
• READY TO VIEW: The World's Busiest Airports of 2025
  

Airline capacity by region

Which region of Europe has most airline capacity?

• 72% of capacity is from or within Western Europe, growing by 4.5% vs last year to 97m seats.
• Capacity in Eastern/Central Europe continues to grow at a faster rate of 10.9%, to 17.2m seats.