ACI Europe: “The Post‑Pandemic Travel Boom is Fading”

Kevin Rozario

London

May 7, 2025

Rome

Rome's FCO had the strongest growth among the 'majors' in Q1.

© Philip Mallis / Wikipedia

First quarter passenger traffic data from across the European airport network show a solid rise of 4.3% versus the same period last year. The increase means that Europe’s airports in Q1 were ahead of pre-pandemic Q1 2019 traffic by 3.2%.

Among the ‘majors’, (hubs with over 40 million passengers annually), the most gains came from Rome‑Fiumicino (FCO) at 9.4%, Istanbul Sabiha Gokçen (SAW) up 9%, Paris (CDG) clocking 5.6%, and Spain’s Madrid (MAD) and Barcelona (BCN) up 4.5% and 3.2%, respectively. On the other hand, the international gateway of Amsterdam‑Schiphol (AMS) was up by just 3%, and passenger traffic at Frankfurt declined by almost 1%.  

Drilling down, there is a major imbalance in the Q1 growth as it is being driven entirely by international traffic (up 5.7%) while domestic numbers remained flat (at 0%) compared to the same period last year.

The significance of the international component is even more stark when compared to Q1 2019 because Q1 2025 international traffic was almost 9% ahead, while domestic passenger numbers were very far behind: still down by almost 13% versus pre-pandemic. 

However, the top-line momentum does look encouraging—even though it has taken years to achieve—but not to Airports Council International Europe, whose data AirportIR is using. For context, ACI Europe said that growth in Q1 2024 was up by 10% versus Q1 2023, so it has slipped back this year.

Furthermore, year‑on‑year monthly growth in Q1 showed a steady deceleration: from 6.9% in January to 3.4% in February and just 3% in March, although the latter reflected Easter falling in April this year (in other words, a high comparison base last March).

aci europe Olivier Jankovec Director General ACI EUROPE

Jankovec: “The big question is what happens as of next winter given the unprecedented macro‑economic uncertainty we are now facing.”

© ACI Europe

ACI Europe Urges Caution

Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe, said: “Our Q1 data show that the post‑pandemic travel boom is fading as we are moving towards ‘normalized’ growth rates in passenger volumes, with demand generally remaining resilient. This reflects consumers prioritizing experiences despite an increasingly challenging economic environment, along with the dynamism of aviation markets in the eastern and southern parts of our continent and Central Asia.”

Jankovec added: “While transatlantic demand is weakening, we expect the European part of that to shift to other markets, and remain confident about the summer season. The big question is what happens as of next winter, given the unprecedented macroeconomic uncertainty we are now facing as a result of the Trump administration’s attack on the global multilateral trading system.

“This means that in addition to geopolitics and the current supply pressures coming from aircraft delivery and maintenance delays, as well as infrastructure capacity constraints, and airlines focusing on yields rather than capacity expansion, we could see downward demand pressures becoming a reality.”

These negative industry factors have come together all at once (though not for the first time, probably). Coupled with what appears to be a destabilizing world—the latest conflict to escalate has been between India and Pakistan arsing from an attack on tourists—airports will be watching their numbers in the current and future quarters very keenly.