Data extracted in December 2025
Planned article update: 7 December 2026
Highlights
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Source: Eurostat (avia_gooc)
This article analyses recent freight and mail data on air transport in the European Union (EU), EFTA countries and 4 of the candidate countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye. The role of air transport in freight transport is less significant than in passenger transport, as aircraft are an expensive transport mode in terms of tonne-kilometres and only competitive for longer distances and relatively light high-value or perishable goods.
The article distinguishes between national (domestic), intra- and extra-EU transport, then examines the significance and ranking of airports.
Air freight and mail transport in the EU increased by 8.7% between 2023 and 2024
Total freight and mail transport in the EU increased by 8.7% in 2024 compared with 2023 (Table 1), reaching 14.3 million tonnes. This increase was mainly due to intra -EU transport which grew by 9.1%, while extra-EU was relatively stable (+0.1%). In contrast, national transport decreased by 4.3%.
Between 2023 and 2024, freight and mail transport by air increased in all EU countries, except Poland (-3.6%) and Latvia (-2.7%). Among the EFTA and candidate countries, only Iceland recorded a decrease (-2.3%). The highest increase was registered by Hungary (+65.9%), followed by Czechia (+43.7%), Greece (+36.7%) and Cyprus (+20.1%). Among the remaining EU countries, 11 recorded a growth between 10% an 15%. Noticeable increases were also recorded in the EFTA countries Norway (+27.5%) and Switzerland (+14.6%) as well as in all candidate countries, North Macedonia showing the highest, with +92.3%.
In 2024, the highest volume of freight and mail was loaded and unloaded at German airports, with 4.7 million tonnes. Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the candidate country Türkiye were the other countries with more than 1 million tonnes of freight and mail loaded and unloaded in 2024.
Source: Eurostat (avia_gooc)
Figure 1 indicates that the extra-EU transport represented 83.3% of the total air freight and mail transport. It was the main origin/destination far ahead of intra-EU transport (13.9%) and national transport (2.9%). Compared with 2023, intra-EU and national transport lost 1.2 percentage points (pp) and 0.4 pp in 2024, respectively, to the benefit of extra-EU.
Source: Eurostat (avia_gooc)
Map 1 gives a picture of the extra-EU market. Eastern Asia was the main origin/destination of freight and mail transported by air in 2024, with 25.4% of the total extra-EU transport, followed by North America (21.5%). The lowest share was observed for Australasia, S. Sea Is. & Antarctica (0.03%). Decreases were observed in transport with Central America and Caribbean (-6.4%), rest of Africa (Africa without Eastern Africa) (-0.9%) and Northern America (-0.4%). By contrast, transport with the other world regions increased between 2023 and 2024. In relative terms, the highest growths were recorded for transport with Central Asia (+47.5%), Western Asia (+24.4%), Oceania and southern polar regions (+18.5%), South eastern Asia (+13.4%) and Eastern Asia (+12.8%).
Source: (avia_goexcc)
In 2024, Frankfurt Main was the main EU airport in terms of tonnes of freight and mail loaded/unloaded, with 2.0 million tonnes, closely followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, with 1.9 million tonnes (Table 2). Amsterdam Schiphol, Leipzig Halle and Liege were the other EU airports with more than 1 million tonnes in 2024. When looking at the number of flights, the ranking was slightly different. Leipzig Halle was first with 49 948 flights, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle (38 071 flights), Köln Bonn (34 706 flights), Liege (24 334 flights), Frankfurt Main (23 743 flights) and Milano Malpensa (22 975 flights). These were the only airports with more than 20 000 flights.
Among the top 20 airports, 18 registered a growth between 2023 and 2024 in terms of total freight and mail loaded/unloaded. Budapest Liszt Ferenc International recorded the highest increase (+65.7%), followed by Roma Fiumicino (+44.4%), Zaragoza (+39.6%) and Liege (+20.4%). In addition, 6 airports recorded a growth between 10% and 20%. By contrast, Köln Bonn (-3.5%) and Leipzig Halle (-0.6%) recorded a decrease between 2023 and 2024.
Source: Eurostat (avia_gooa)
For long distances over 2 000 km, 99% of the total transport was extra-EU in the period 2022-2023
Figure 2 presents freight and mail transport by type of transport and distance class. For long distances over 2 000 km, 99% of the total transport was extra-EU in 2024, 2023 and 2022. For distances between 1 500 and 1 999 km, extra-EU transport represented 58% of the total in 2024 and 2022. In 2023, this share was 55%. Intra-EU transport of freight and mail was predominant in distances inferior to 1 500 km. In 2024, it represented 73% of total transport in the 1 000–1 499 km distance class, 69% in 500–999 km class and 51% in 300–499 km class. When looking at distances lower than 300 km, intra-EU transport represented 53%, while national claimed 39% of the total freight and mail on board.
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Source: Eurostat (avia_goodis)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
More recent freight and mail data are available in the Eurostat database for several countries. Eurostat encourages reporting countries to provide statistics on air transport in advance of the regulatory deadline. For certain countries, the data are available already up to 3 months after the end of a reference month.
Main definitions
The definitions used for air transport statistics are included in Regulation (EC) No 1358/2003 of 31 July 2003 implementing Regulation (EC) No 437/2003 of 27 February 2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air. The main definitions are the following:
- On Flight Origin and Destination (OFOD):
Traffic on a commercial air service identified by a unique flight number subdivided by airport pairs in accordance with the point of embarkation and point of disembarkation on that flight. This is linked to the definition of passengers carried.
- Freight and mail loaded/unloaded:
All freight and mail loaded onto or unloaded from an aircraft. This excludes direct transit freight and mail. In principle, information provided in this article is based on On Flight Origin/Destination (OFOD) data. Only when OFOD data have not been reported have airport declarations been used.
- Airport coverage:
In principle, this article covers air transport to and from any airports in the reporting countries with more than 150 000 passengers annually. Double counting: the national aggregates and total intra-EU aggregates exclude any double counting. It includes all the departures figures reported plus ‘a part of’ arrivals declarations, ‘a part of’ including those arrivals for which the corresponding partner airport departure declarations are missing.
Map 1: the component countries comprising the world regions as defined for this map are based on the geonomenclature used by Eurostat for external trade statistics. The components of each world region can be extracted from the aviation domain in the Eurostat online database or obtained upon request. Care should be taken when drawing any conclusions regarding world regional shares, as passengers who either stop over or change planes en route are allocated to the country where they made their connections, rather than the country of first origin or final destination.
In this article
- ":" means "not available"
- "-" means "not applicable"
- "0n" means "less than half the unit used"
- "0" means real zero
Context
All figures presented in this article have been extracted from the Eurostat aviation database. The database is available online from the Eurostat web page.
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Transport, see detailed datasets:
- Air transport (avia)
- Air transport measurement – passengers (avia_pa)
- Detailed air passenger transport by reporting country and routes (avia_par)
- Air transport measurement – freight and mail (avia_go)
- Air transport measurement – passengers (avia_pa)
Thematic section
Methodology
- Passenger and freight transport by air/Traffic data/Air transport at regional level (ESMS metadata file - avia_pa_esms)
- Reference Manual on Air Transport Statistics - Version 17 (Methodological manual)
- Glossary for transport statistics – 5th edition – 2019
Legislation
- Regulation (EC) No 1358/2003 of 31 July 2003 implementing Regulation (EC) No 437/2003 of 27 February 2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air.
External links
Selected datasets
- Transport, see selected datasets:
- Air transport (t_avia)
- Air transport of passengers (ttr00012)
- Air transport of goods (ttr00011)