In 2016, 972.7 million passengers travelled by air in the European Union (EU), up by 5.9% compared with 2015, notably driven by the rise within the EU (+102%).
Air transport has steadily risen in the EU over the past years, up by 29.1% compared with 2009.
In 2016, transport within the EU represented almost half (47%), with over a third (35.6%) of travel going outside the EU and only one in every five passengers (17.3%) travelling within a member state.
The United Kingdom saw the largest number of passengers – 249 million – followed by Germany (201m), Spain (194m), France (145m) and Italy (135m).
Among the top five member states in terms of air passengers transported in 2016, the largest growths were registered in Spain (+11%) and the United Kingdom (+7.1%).
London/Heathrow remained the EU’s busiest passenger airport in 2016, with 75.7 million passengers handled, slightly up (+1.0%) compared with 2015. Paris/Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam/Schiphol, Frankfurt/Main and Madrid/Barajas completed the top five busiest airports in the EU.
Eurostat’s report on 2016 also revealed that only six people were killed in commercial air transport accidents with EU aircraft within the EU in 2016.