Europe's Aviation Market

How much airline capacity is there in Europe? Find out with new data each month.

Here's a quick overview of the top statistics from the European aviation market:

• Busiest airport: Istanbul
• Top airline: Ryanair
• Country with most international airline capacity: Spain
• Most visited world region from Europe (exc Europe): North America
  

How much airline capacity is there in Europe This Month?

• Total airline capacity in Europe this month stands at 158 million seats, a 4.9% increase compared to October 2024.
• International capacity increased by 6.1%, while domestic capacity saw a modest rise of 0.1% compared to October 2024.
• LCC capacity grew by 6.1% vs last year, whilst Mainline capacity grew by 4.1% and represents 61% of the market.
  

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

Which is the Busiest Airport in Europe?

• Istanbul remains the busiest airport in Europe, growing by 10.2% to 4.52m seats. A close second, Heathrow grew by only 0.2% to 4.46m seats.
• Strongest growth in the Top 10 comes again from Istanbul Sabiha, where carriers have increased capacity by 20.2% year on year.
  
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Which is the biggest airline in Europe?

• Ryanair is the largest carrier within Europe with 20m seats, an increase of 4.1% vs last year. This is 10.3m more seats than easyJet, the second largest carrier.
• Pegasus continued to record the strongest growth amongst the Top 10 European airlines this month with a year-on-year increase of 15.9%. This is followed by Wizz Air which increased capacity by 14.3%.