Air passenger transport up by 5% in 2006

London/Heathrow remains busiest passenger airport

The total number of passengers¹ transported by air in the EU27 rose by 4.7% in 2006 compared with 2005, to almost 740 million. In 2005, passenger numbers in the EU25 rose by 8.5%². In 2006, the highest numbers of passengers were registered in the United Kingdom (211 million, +4%), Germany (154 million, +6%), Spain
(151 million, +5%), France (113 million, +5%) and Italy (96 million, +9%).

Passenger numbers rose in 2006 in all Member States except Cyprus and Malta. Four Member States recorded growth of 30% or more compared to 2005: Romania (+35%), Slovakia (+34%), Latvia (+33%) and Poland (+31%). Eight Member States reported an increase of more than 10%: seven Member States from Central and Eastern Europe as well as Ireland.

Of the total number of passengers transported, 23% (170 million) were carried on national flights, 44%
(320 million) on intra-EU27 flights and 34% (250 million) on extra-EU27 flights.

Amsterdam/Schiphol busiest airport for intra-EU traffic, Madrid/Barajas for national

London/Heathrow remained, despite a fall of 0.5% in passenger numbers between 2005 and 2006, the EU’s busiest passenger airport with 67 million passengers in 2006. Paris/Charles de Gaulle (56 million, +6%) and Frankfurt/Main (52 million, +1%) were the second and third busiest airports, followed by Amsterdam/Schiphol (46 million, +4%) and Madrid/Barajas (45 million, +8%).

London/Heathrow (37 million) was the busiest EU airport for extra-EU27 passengers, Amsterdam/Schiphol
(27 million) the busiest for intra-EU27 traffic and Madrid/Barajas (20 million) the busiest for national flights.

These figures are published in a report³ from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, on air transport in the EU27 in 2006. This report also looks in detail at national, intra-EU and extra-EU air transport passengers, as well as the most important airport pairs, nationally and internationally.

EU27 air passenger transport, 2006

        Total transport National        Intra-EU27      Extra-EU27     
        Passengers,
000s    % growth 2006/2005      Passengers,
000s    Passengers,
000s    Passengers,
000s   
EU27*   738 410 4.7     167 253 320 968 250 189
Belgium**       19 155  4.5     59      14 173  4 922  
Bulgaria***     5 605   11.6    :       :       :      
Czech Republic  12 171  8.0     261     8 941   2 969  
Denmark 22 966  3.6     1 791   15 180  5 995  
Germany 154 146 5.6     22 823  81 867  49 456 
Estonia 1 533   10.1    21      1 281   231    
Ireland 27 558  13.6    804     23 897  2 857  
Greece  32 762  6.4     6 130   22 749  3 883  
Spain   150 599 4.8     40 383  92 986  17 231 
France  113 183 4.8     26 998  46 994  39 190 
Italy   95 914  9.1     26 370  52 384  17 160 
Cyprus  6 714   -1.0    1       5 647   1 067  
Latvia  2 488   32.9    2       2 018   468    
Lithuania       1 799   25.4    1       1 506   293    
Luxembourg      1 597   3.9     0       1 358   239    
Hungary 8 246   4.1     3       6 358   1 885  
Malta   2 700   -2.1    8       2 419   273    
Netherlands     48 583  4.6     49      28 825  19 708 
Austria 20 825  5.8     618     13 807  6 399  
Poland**        13 738  31.4    938     10 293  2 506  
Portugal        22 027  8.7     3 010   15 473  3 544  
Romania 4 722   35.1    381     3 666   675    
Slovenia        1 327   9.1     0       875     452    
Slovakia        2 124   34.2    116     1 770   238    
Finland 13 443  8.9     2 937   8 426   2 080  
Sweden**        25 855  3.1     6 989   15 052  3 814  
United Kingdom  211 229 3.5     26 559  122 015 62 655