This boon ranked it in joint second place with Estonia, Bulgaria and Czechia (Czech Republic), just behind Slovenia, which reported a 20% growth, according to a Eurostat report (PDF), published on 6 December.
2017 was a record year for airport passengers at Luxembourg’s only commercial airport, in Findel, with 3.6m passengers passing through, up from 3.02m in 2016, according to airport figures.
The airport authority told press at the beginning of 2018 that nearly every airline operating routes out of the hub had recorded growing passenger numbers: Luxair added 115,000 passengers, and Ryanair 33,000.
Was the airport able to continue this rampant growth in 2018? Official figures have yet to be released, however, with the addition of new flights between Luxembourg and Malta, Dublin and Seville, operated by Ryanair, continued growth looks likely.
Jetsetter appeal
Luxembourg’s jetsetter appeal was not enough to compete with other airports in larger countries, however, as Luxembourg languished in 97th place in the ranking for EU airports in terms of total passengers carried.
The top place went to UK airport, London/Heathrow, which received around 78 million visitors, +3.1%, while London Gatwick occupied seventh place with 46 million, +5.5%. The In 2017, the UK recorded the largest number of air passengers at 265 million, followed by Germany (212 million), Spain (210 million), France (154 million) and Italy (144 million).
Air passenger travel has never been so widely used in the EU, with more than 1 billion air passengers transported in 2017.
