Air connectivity in Europe has increased by 7% in 2025 compared to the previous year, although it remains 9% lower than pre-pandemic levels recorded in 2019, the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe’s 2025 Airport Industry Connectivity Report has revealed.
In contrast, passenger volumes fully recovered in 2024 and have continued to rise throughout 2025, suggesting that consumers are facing fewer and more expensive travel options.
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The report, which serves as a key indicator of air connectivity across Europe, was launched before the 35th ACI Europe Annual Congress & General Assembly.
It utilises connectivity indexes developed by SEO Amsterdam Economics to measure and rank airport connectivity comprehensively.
The report highlights that unsupportive policies, market shifts, and geopolitical factors are reshaping connectivity patterns and causing significant performance disparities among national and individual airport markets.
ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec said: “The data we present today is unequivocal: Europe urgently needs a strategic policy reset that places air connectivity as a key pillar of its competitiveness, cohesion and strategic autonomy agendas.
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By GlobalData“This means recognising that air connectivity — and with it aviation — is not just about soft power. It delivers critical economic and social benefits, secures Europe’s global positioning and even contributes to projecting hard power capabilities.”
The EU+ market, which includes the EU, EEA, Switzerland and the UK, has seen an 8% decline compared to 2019, recovering more connectivity than the non-EU+ market, which is down 12%.
This decline is attributed to the loss of air connectivity in Ukrainian airports and significant reductions in Russia and Belarus, alongside losses in Israel due to ongoing conflicts.
In the EU+ market, Greece, Portugal, and Cyprus have shown notable increases in air connectivity, while 13 countries have experienced double-digit losses, particularly Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany.
Spain, reliant on tourism, is the only major EU+ market to exceed its 2019 connectivity levels.
Istanbul has emerged as the leader in direct connectivity, showing a 13% increase since 2019. It is followed by Amsterdam Schiphol and London Heathrow, which rank second and third, respectively.
Frankfurt has overtaken Paris CDG for fourth place, with both airports experiencing varying degrees of connectivity recovery.
Istanbul has also claimed the top spot globally for hub connectivity, with a 59% increase since 2019, largely due to the expansion of Turkish Airlines.
Dallas Fort Worth and Frankfurt follow in the global rankings. Overall, hub connectivity in Europe remains 12% below pre-pandemic levels, reflecting ongoing structural changes in the aviation market.
The report underscores that eight European airports rank among the top 20 globally for hub connectivity, alongside eight from North America and four from Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
The data indicates that while some airports have recovered, many major Western European hubs still lag behind their 2019 performance due to various challenges.
In 2022, the CEOs of ACI Europe and the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), along with airport and industry stakeholders, committed to ongoing collaboration on open architecture for airport security systems throughout Europe.
