Air passenger transport - monthly statistics

Data extracted in June 2018.

Planned article update: April 2019

Highlights

In 2017, air passenger transport in the EU increased by 7.3 % compared with 2016.

Slovenia, Luxembourg and Estonia recorded the highest increase in air passenger transport among the EU countries in 2017.

Share of and change in EU-28 monthly passengers carried in 2016 and 2017 (million passengers).
For more details about the data presented, please see the notes in the 'Data sources and availability' section.
Source: Eurostat (avia_paoc)

This article describes the recent monthly development of passenger transport by air in the European Union (EU). A distinction is made between national (domestic), intra and extra-EU transport, and the article also looks at the importance of airports.

Full article

Development of air passenger transport at EU level

In the course of 2016 and 2017, the upward trend already observed in passenger transport by air for previous years was confirmed at EU-28 level, an increase of 5.9 % was recorded between 2015 and 2016 and the figures for 2017 indicate a year-on-year rise of 7.3 % compared with 2016 - see Table 1.

Figure 1: Share of and change in EU-28 monthly passengers carried in 2016 and 2017 (million passengers).
For more details about the data presented, please see the notes in the 'Data sources and availability' section.
Source: Eurostat (avia_paoc)

In 2017, international intra-EU transport represented around 47 % of all passengers carried at EU-28 level, followed by extra-EU transport (around 36 %) and national transport (around 17 %) - see Figure 1.

Figure 2: Change in EU-28 monthly passengers carried for 2016 and 2017 (compared to the same month of the previous year) (%).
For more details about the data presented, please see the notes in the 'Data sources and availability' section.
Source: Eurostat (avia_paoc)

Figure 2 shows that all the months of 2016 displayed an increase on the previous year (ranging from +3.2 % in April to +11.4 % in December). All months of 2017 showed rises compared with the same period in 2016, the largest rise taking place in April (+14.0 % compared with the corresponding month of 2016).

Air passenger transport at country level

Analysing passenger transport at country level generally confirms the upward trend observed in 2016 and 2017 at EU-28 level, although transport development varies significantly depending on the country considered. For 2017, all Member States and all extra-EU reporting countries showed an increase in passenger volumes compared with the same period in 2016. Particularly remarkable is the growth observed for Slovenia (+20 %), Luxembourg (+19 %) and Estonia (+19 %) among the EU Member States. At the other end of the scale, minor increases were observed in passenger transport for Denmark (+1 %), for Austria (+4 %) and Ireland (+5 %).

Outside the EU-28, the level of growth differs across countries: on the one hand, the highest year-on-year increases were registered in Iceland (+22 %) and Montenegro (+18 %) while, on the other hand, only a slight increase was observed for Norway (+3 %).

Table 1:Passengers carried per country monthly data for 2016 and 2017 (thousand)
Source: Eurostat (avia_paoc)

Air passenger transport at airport level

Within the top 30 airports in terms of passenger transport, growths between 2016 and 2017 also differ substantially depending on the airport considered, reflecting the trends observed at country level. For 2017, 28 out of the top 30 airports showed an increase over this period. Warsaw/Chopina and Lisboa registered the highest rises among the largest airports with an increase of 23 % and 19 % respectively for both, followed by Praha/Ruzyne (+18.5 %). This contrasts with Roma/Fiumicino and Berlin/Tegel airports, where passenger transport decreased by 1.8 % and 3.7% respectively in 2017 compared with 2016 - see Table 2.

Table 2: Passengers handled in top airports monthly data for 2016 and 2017 (thousand)
Source: Eurostat (avia_paoa)

Source data for tables and graphs

Air passenger transport statistics

Data sources

Definition of 'passengers carried'

All passengers on a particular flight are counted once only and not repeatedly on each individual stage of that flight. This excludes direct transit passengers.

Exclusion of double counting

The national transport (included in total transport at country level) and intra-EU transport aggregates (included in total transport at EU level) have been calculated so as to exclude double counting by taking into account only departure declarations.

Notes on some reporting countries

Turkey: only provides flight stage data (Dataset A1) (in which there is no information on passenger carried) and airport declarations (Dataset C1) in which the partner airport is not provided (exclusion of double counting is not possible). The sum of all Turkish airport declarations (available in avia_tf_apal) is used in this publication. As a consequence the national total presented in Table 1 is overestimated (as it is not possible to apply double counting exclusion for national transport).

Context

The content of this statistical article is based on data collected within the framework of the EU air transport statistics Regulation (EC) No 437/2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air.

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