Which are the largest international airports in Europe? Which airports in France appear in the ranking? Here is the list of the 20 most important airports in Europe in terms of passenger traffic. Surprise: it is not the large airports in terms of surface area that attract the most passengers per year. We also mention the top 10 French airports and the largest airport in the world in terms of surface area.
Europe’s largest airport
Europe’s largest airport in terms of passenger traffic is located in the UK. It is London Heathrow, with 80,884,310 visitors in 2019. It is also one of the largest intercontinental airports in the world, ranking 7th. In particular, Heathrow attracts the most international passengers annually in Europe.
Europe’s other 19 largest airports
2 – Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport – Paris – France
- surface area: 32.38 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 76,150,007
France’s first airport for Paris CDG for the intimate ones! Priority for international flights over Orly. It is also the 10th largest airport in the world and the largest airport in Europe in terms of surface area.
3 – Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport – Netherlands
- surface area: 27.87 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 71,707,144
4 – Frankfurt am Main Airport – Germany
- surface area: 23 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 270,556,072
5 – Adolfo Suárez de Madrid-Barajas Airport – Spain
- surface area: 30.50 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 61,734,037
Madrid airport is the most important airport in Spain, just before Barcelona.
6 – Barcelona Airport – El Prat – Spain
- number of passengers in 2019: 52,686,314
7 – Istanbul Airport – Turkey
- surface area: 76.6 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 52,578,008
8 – Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport – Russia
- number of passengers in 2019: 49,438,545
9 – Munich Franz-Josef-Strauß Airport – Germany
- surface area: 15.6 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 47,941,348
10 – London-Gatwick Airport – United Kingdom
- surface area: 8 hectares
- number of travellers in 2019: 46,574,786
11 – Rome Leonard-de-Vinci Airport Fiumicino – Italy
- surface area: 14.5 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 43,532,573
12 – Dublin International Airport – Ireland
- surface area: 11 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 32,907,673
13 – Paris-Orly Airport – France
- surface area: 15.3 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 31,853,049
It is the second French airport and the first for domestic flights. It is also the airport with the most low cost airlines to travel in Europe with 78 destinations.
14 – Vienna-Schwechat Airport – Austria
- number of passengers in 2019: 31,662,189
15 – Zurich Airport – Switzerland
- surface area: 800 hectares
- number of passengers in 2019: 31,507,692
16 – Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport – Portugal
- number of passengers in 2019: 31,173,000
17 – Copenhagen Airport – Denmark
- surface area : 1100 hectares
- number of passengers in 2019: 30,256,703
18 – Palma de Mallorca Airport – Spain
- surface area: 6.3 km2
- number of passengers in 2019: 29,721,123
19 – Manchester Airport – United Kingdom
- surface area: 560 hectares
- number of passengers in 2019: 29,413,116
20 – Milan Malpensa Airport – Italy
- surface area: 935 hectares
- number of passengers in 2019: 28,846,299
What is the top 10 most important French airports?
After the first two places on the podium occupied by Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly, here is the ranking of the main French airports. Note that they are all provincial airports.
Nice Airport – Côte d’Azur
- 14,485,423 passengers in 2019
It is the second European airport for business aviation movements, after Paris-Le Bourget.
Lyon-Saint-Exupéry Airport
- 11,739,600 passengers in 2019
Lyon-Saint-Exupéry airport was voted best European airport in 2019 in its category of reception capacity.
Marseille-Provence Airport
- 10,151,743 passengers in 2019
Toulouse-Blagnac Airport
- 9,620,224 passengers in 2019
Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg Airport
- 9,085,126 passengers in 2019
Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport
- 7,703,135 passengers in 2019
Nantes-Atlantique Airport
- 7,227,411 passengers in 2019
Paris-Beauvais Airport
- 3,983,250 passengers in 2019
Mainly known for low cost flights, the main airline it houses is Ryanair.
For a ranking of the world’s largest airports, you can read our article about it here.
What is the largest airport in the world in terms of surface area?
King Fahd’s Dammam Airport with its 776.00 km2 is located in Saudi Arabia. It is the largest airport in the world by area. By way of comparison, the cities of Amsterdam or Marseille are smaller than it. With just over 9 million passengers, it is not one of the busiest airports in the world. Why such a large surface area then? The airport’s website only states 36.75 km2, the rest of the surface area does not really fit into the delimitation.
There is a 6-storey terminal building and a huge mosque. Inaugurated at the end of the 1990s, the airport has three terminals, one of which, the Royal Terminal, is reserved for the Saudi royal family. However, this terminal is rarely used by the Saudi royal family.
