Most Western European airports experienced a decline in passenger traffic of 70% or more in 2020
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport was Europe’s fifth-busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic in 2020, following Istanbul’s new airport, Roissy – Charles de Gaulle in Paris, London Heathrow and Amsterdam’s Schiphol.
Heathrow had been first among European airports, but suffered a 73% decrease in passenger traffic due to lockdowns and border closures stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, which affected all airports.
Most Western European airports experienced a decline in passenger traffic of 70% or more in 2020, but Sheremetyevo and Istanbul’s reductions were smaller, resulting in their rise in the ranking.
Sheremetyevo served 19,784,000 passengers in 2020, compared to 49.9 million in 2019, and performed 186,383 take-off and landing operations. The new Istanbul airport, which opened in April 2019, served 23.4 million passengers.
Aviation industry analysts do not expect passenger traffic to rise significantly this year as long as the travel restrictions continue.
Rounding out the list of Europe’s ten busiest airports in 2020 were Frankfurt, Madrid, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (SAW), Barcelona and Munich.
