Despite multiple challenges last year, passenger numbers continued to grow across European airports. But ACI EUROPE Director General Olivier Jankovec sees no let-up in the issues the sector faces, writes Graham Dunn
ACI EUROPE director general Olivier Jankovec believes one word sums up the attributes of the region’s traffic performance last year: resilience.
Set against a year of tepid economic growth, continued capacity constraints and geopolitical volatilities, passenger numbers nonetheless increased by 100 million across European airports to a new absolute high of 2.6 billion. That growth was primarily driven by international traffic, as passenger levels on domestic flights in the region were flat last year.
“However, traffic performance variations – whether by market, airport size or otherwise – remain a reality, due to increased traffic volatility, airline dominance, and consolidation along with renewed competitive pressures upon airports,” Jankovec said.
That is reflected in passenger numbers at 41% of European airports still remaining below their pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
Jankovec noted that many of the growth drivers in the region progressively shifted from the South to the East of the bloc. Slovakia with passenger growth of 20%, Poland 14% and Hungary and Slovakia with around 11% each were among the best performing markets last year. By contrast, airport growth in the established markets of France, Germany and the UK underperformed – countries where Jankovec highlighted “punitive” taxation regimes.
Overall passenger growth in non-EU airports within Europe last year outpaced that seen among EU airports.
Encouragingly, traffic developed positively across the year, increasing 6.1% across all European airports in the final quarter of last year.
“This is a very positive signal for 2026,” Jankovec said, noting that passenger traffic was up 4.6% in January compared with the same month last year.
Yet if resilience was needed in 2025, it is likely to be required again this year as well.
“The conflict that has erupted in the Middle East is upending traffic forecasts, making the outlook highly uncertain for now,” he said. “The Middle East and in particular the Gulf has over the past 20 years become an important part of connectivity and traffic volumes for many European airports – from larger regional ones to major hubs.
“This is not just about direct connectivity and traffic to the Middle East, but also indirect connectivity via that region to Asia-Pacific. This means that even if part of the underlying leisure-driven demand could shift to other destinations or other direct and indirect routings to Asia-Pacific, that traffic is simply not substitutable.”
Disruption risk
European airports were already grappling with another significant headache this summer, following the introduction of the new EU digital border system.
“Unfortunately, the Schengen Entry/Exit System (EES) continues to cause significant delays for passengers,” Jankovec said.
The European Commission began a progressive rollout of EES across EU countries last October. Jankovec noted that already in the current phase, which requires 35% of third-country nationals to be registered, that persistent and excessive waiting times of up to two hours are being reported at airport border controls.
“This is due to chronic border control understaffing, unresolved technology issues and the very limited uptake of the Frontex pre-registration app by Schengen states,” Jankovec said, warning that unless these issues are addressed immediately, the requirement for EES registration of all border crossings during the peak summer season could result in waiting times of four hours or more.
ACI EUROPE is calling on the Commission to take immediate action to resolve these issues and confirm that Schengen Member States will retain the ability to partially or totally suspend EES until the end of October 2026 if needed.
Regulatory priorities
The introduction of EES comes in a particularly busy regulatory year within Europe, with a string of topics on the agenda that will help shape how the region’s air transport sector face long-standing challenges.
“Europe is facing an airport capacity and investment crunch,” said Jankovec. “We need stability and certainty in economic regulation: this will create stronger investment conditions and encourage smarter and better use of existing capacity.
“As part of this, we urgently need a revision of airport slots rules in the EU and UK – as recommended by the Draghi report on competitiveness.”
The latter is a wide-ranging report by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi published by the Commission in 2024 on the region’s competitiveness and the challenges it faces.
“In order to boost connectivity with fast-developing tourism outbound markets – such as India and Mexico – we need more EU Aviation Agreements,” Jankovec said, noting this is fully aligned with the EU’s planned trade diversification and decoupling agenda.
“Sustainability and decarbonisation remains the mother of all challenges,” he added. “Airports need better support from the EU moving forward.”
Jankovec described the EU Sustainable Transport Investment Plan as a start, but called for the implementation of all measures listed in this plan. He also urged the “concrete follow-up” on the promised Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Book and Claim system – a mechanism to decouple payment from the uplift location of SAF – as well as increased funding for aviation decarbonisation measures.
Financial viability
These regulatory challenges are set against the major investment levels the region’s airports require, underlined in a new report published by ACI EUROPE in January. The report, based on research by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), estimates European airport investments needs will total around €360 billion (US$415 billion) by 2040.
For Jankovec, there is one clear message from the study.
“Airports must decouple financial viability from volume growth,” he said. “We can no longer rely on the assumption of dynamic traffic growth.
“Going forward, value creation will have to come from growing our unit revenues – both from airport charges and non–aeronautical activities – along with continued efficiency gains.”
He highlighted the significant pressure that European airports are under due to structural changes in the aviation market and its economics – including slower traffic growth as a result of climate policies.
“These changes are creating unprecedented downward pressures on revenues and upward pressures on costs,” Jankovec said. “If no corrective action and remedies are taken, BCG’s analysis shows that €45-75 billion in value generation (EBITDA) would be lost over the next 20 years.
“This report provides evidence in writing of what airports are experiencing on the ground,” he added. “It gives national regulators a stark reminder of why the recently announced EU Aviation Strategy is so crucial – in order to support airports towards their new value creation model and safeguard both air connectivity and the integrity of a competitive European aviation market.”
This and more will be under discussion at the forthcoming ACI EUROPE Annual Congress and General Assembly in Prague on 22-24 June 2026
“We’ll explore how airports can lead through uncertainty – addressing resilience, sustainability, financing, and innovation across Europe’s aviation ecosystem,” Jankovec said. “Delegates will examine the latest economic and policy trends shaping Europe’s air transport sector and share strategies for delivering sustainable growth and capacity.”
