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 capacity in  European market grew by 5% vs November 2024 to 125.8m.
• International capacity, which grew by 7%, whilst domestic capacity contracted by 1.9% vs November 2024.
• Low Cost Carrier capacity grew by 5.6% vs last year, whilst Mainline carriers capacity grew by 4.6% and represents 64% 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 4.2m seats, an increase of 2.2% vs last year.
  
• A close second, Istanbul grew by 9% to 4.1m seats.
• Strongest percentage growth in the Top 10 airports comes again from Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen where carriers have increased capacity by 13.7% year on year.
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Which is the biggest airline in Europe?

• Ryanair is the largest carrier within Europe, with 14.5m seats, an increase of 6.4% vs last year.  The carrier is operating  7.9m more seats than easyJet, the second largest carrier.
  
• SAS Scandinavian Airlines made the largest percentage increase in capacity of 15.4% to 3.1m seats. Followed by Turkish LCC, Pegasus with a year on year increase of 14.6% to 3.8m seats.