ICCSAI Report

Air traffic: Europe slows down, Italy flies. And Fiumicino overtakes Gatwick

The Roman airportcame 7th in Europe. Ryanair first companyin Italy. Ita growth rates among the highest in the Continent.

by Mara Monti

26 June 2025

3' min read

Key points

The legacy of the Covid crisis
The large hub model
The role of low-cost

3' min read

Air traffic growth in Europe is weakening in the first quarter of 2025 due to the worsening economic situation and delays in the delivery of new aircraft to airlines, but despite the uncertainties, Italy is posting better passenger traffic growth rates than the European average at 5.7 per cent against 4.1 per cent.

The Bel Paese confirms its bronze medal in 2024, with 217.9 million passengers ahead of Germany and France and behind Great Britain and Spain, with growth rates of 11.1%. Rome Fiumicino continues to grow and for the first time overtakes London's Gatwick airport, taking seventh place in the European ranking with 49.2 million passengers and a growth rate of 20.7%, the highest rate among the main European hubs. Malpensa consolidated in 20th place among European hubs with 28.9 million passengers (+10.9%), and in second place as a domestic airport, followed by Bergamo Orio Al Serio with 17.3 million passengers. Among the medium-sized airports, Bari airport in Puglia stands out with the highest growth of 31.2 per cent since Covid. Similar trends for the other Apulian airports.

The Legacy of the Covid Crisis

The data emerge from the latest edition of FactBook 2025, the air transport observatory, produced by the ICCSAI Transport and Sustainable Mobility centre of the University of Bergamo.

The Covid crisis is now behind us, Europe in 2024 surpassed 2019 traffic levels one year after Italy, 'but inherited a two-speed growth with large markets such as Germany, France and the Netherlands still below the levels reached before the pandemic,' explains Renato Redondi, researcher at ICCSAI and lecturer at the University of Bergamo.

The large hub model

The report wonders whether this is not a symptom of the crisis of the large hub model such as London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, as the trend is towards a reduction in the incidence of connecting traffic, with smaller airports increasingly able to offer direct flights, even long-haul flights. According to the report, this phenomenon is the combined effect of increasing demand, but also of the technological evolution of aircraft that are able to cover long distances with less size and the level of congestion of the large hubs, while airports in the Middle East and Turkey are gaining ground, with Dubai and Istanbul reaching levels of connectivity equal to Paris and Frankfurt.

AEREI, IL TRAFFICO PASSEGGERI IN EUROPA

The role of low cost

The role of low-cost airlines fits into this perspective, with Ryanair confirming its position as the main carrier in Europe with passenger growth of over 8.5% to 197.1 million in 2024, (29% above pre-Covid levels) a trend that is declining due to delays in aircraft delivery. Ita Airways recovers, showing 21.3% growth over 2023, but still below Alitalia's 2019 levels due to the more limited size of its network.

Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and easyJet continue to grow without exceeding the levels opened up by Covid, while another low-cost company, the Hungarian Wizz Air, is among those that managed to use the Covid crisis to its advantage (+57.5%), but now its run has subsided (+3.9% in 2024) having been forced to ground more than 60 aircraft of its fleet due to engine problems.

The low-cost market in Italy remains dominant, representing a 54.1% share of domestic connections (17 percentage points above the European average) and 58.3% of European connections, (9 percentage points above the European average), a trend of declining growth due to the replacement effect with the disappearance of the national airline Alitalia. This trend is being reversed and Ita has started to grow again with a market share of 30.7% for domestic connections and 15.5% for those in Europe. Ryanair remains the main company in 15 out of 20 airports (it was 9 before Covid) with shares above 50% in 9 airports. EasyJet remains the reference carrier at Malpensa and Olbia and the Spanish Vueling at Florence.