Istanbul Airport served 8.6 million passengers in August and became the busiest airport in Europe during the summer period. The result represents a growth of 3 percent compared to the same month last year.
For comparison, London's “Heathrow“ welcomed 7.9 million passengers, and Paris' “Charles de Gaulle“ -6.9 million. The data are from the August air traffic report of the European branch of the Airports Council International – ACI EUROPE.
Istanbul also leads in air cargo
Cargo traffic at “Istanbul“ airport increased by 18.1 percent year-on-year, while cargo traffic at European airports as a whole decreased by 6.1 percent in August.
Thus, the airport reported the highest growth among the 10 European airports with the highest cargo traffic and ranked first in terms of total cargo volume.
“Sabiha Gökçen“ is the leader in growth rate
The international airport “Sabiha Gökçen“, located in the Asian part of Istanbul, increased its passenger traffic by 9.5 percent compared to August 2025. This is the strongest result in the category of large airports that serve more than 40 million passengers annually.
After “Sabiha Gökçen“ are Madrid with a growth of 4.9 percent, Barcelona with 4.5 percent, “Istanbul“ airport with 3 percent and Rome “Fiumicino“ with 1.4 percent.
Overall, passenger traffic at European airports increased by 3.1 percent in August, and airports in Turkey recorded an increase of 4.4 percent. ACI EUROPE's monthly data covers more than 450 airports, representing over 95 percent of European airport traffic.
Sources: BTA, Anadolu Agency