An airplane with city lights in the background.

In September 2023, there were 605 806 commercial flights in the EU. This marked a 7.9% increase when compared with the flight count in September 2022. However, the figure remained 8.9% lower than the flight count for the same month in 2019.

The same trend was visible throughout June – August. All months saw a significant increase compared with 2022 – June (6.9%), July (7.4%) and August (6.6%), but the figures were still below those from 2019: June (-10.4%), July (-9.0%) and August (-8.5%).

This information comes from monthly flight data on commercial flights published by Eurostat today. 

Commercial flights in the EU, June - September, 2019-2023

Source dataset: avia_tf_cm

Looking at the country data for September 2023, only 6 countries have exceeded their flight counts from 2019. Greece (+10.9%), Portugal (+9.0%), Cyprus (+5.9%), Croatia (+2.6%), Ireland (+1.4%) and Malta (+0.7%) have surpassed the 2019 figures and have seen an increase in the number of flights. In contrast, Latvia (-30.4%), Finland (-30.2%), Estonia (-25.4%), Sweden (-24.1%) and Slovenia (-22.9%) are far from the 2019 figures.

Commercial flights, September 2023 compared with September 2019

Source dataset: avia_tf_cm

For more information

Methodological notes

  • The source of this monthly data on commercial flights is Eurocontrol, a pan-European, civil-military organisation dedicated to supporting European aviation. Data on commercial flights include scheduled and non-scheduled commercial flights (passengers, freight and mail) performed under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). For more information, please refer to the methodological file.
  • Attention to methodological differences should be paid when comparing this monthly data with Eurostat data on passenger, freight and mail air transport collected within Regulation 437/2003. For more information about Eurostat data collection, please refer to this methodological file.