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: London Heathrow
• Top airline: Ryanair
• Country with most international airline capacity: Spain and the UK
• Most visited world region from Europe (exc Europe): Middle East
  

How much airline capacity is there in Europe This Month?

• Overall airline capacity in the European market grew by 5.4% vs December 2024 to 131.2m seats.
• International capacity grew by 7.3%, whilst domestic capacity contracted by 1.1% vs December 2024.
• Low-cost carriers' capacity grew by 6.1% vs last year. Mainline carriers' capacity grew by 5% and represents 63% 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?

• London Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe this month, with 4.3m seats, an increase of 2.1% vs last year.
• A close second, Istanbul grew by 7% to 4.2m seats.
• Strongest percentage growth in the Top 10 airports comes again from Istanbul Sabiha where carriers have increased seat capacity by 13.7% year on year.
  
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Which is the biggest airline in Europe?

• Ryanair is currently Europe’s largest airline, with 15.2 million seats, up 6.2% on last year. This is 7.1 million more seats than easyJet, the second-largest carrier.
• Wizz Air recorded the largest percentage increase in seat capacity, up 19.7% year on year to 6.5 million seats, followed by Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus, which grew 13.6% to 3.8 million seats.