Which are the most popular airports in Europe?

London Heathrow has maintained its crown as the most popular airport in Europe, according to the latest data from Eurostat. Not only was it more popular than number two, Paris Charles de Gaulle, by 10 million passengers, but London itself is so popular that three of its airports figure in the European top 20; the other two being Gatwick and Stansted.

Nearly 880 million people passed through European airports in 2014, according to Eurostat. Of those, the largest group of travellers (44%) was “intra-EU”, meaning that they were travelling from one European Union nation to another. Roughly 38% of passengers were travelling even further abroad, while less than 20% were travelling within their own country.

One in four travellers, some 220 million, passed through the United Kingdom. Other large groups travelled through Germany (186 million), Spain (165 million), France (142 million) and Italy (121 million). Great Britain’s popularity contributed to London Heathrow being the most used airport within the EU, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle and Germany’s Frankfurt Main. Amsterdam’s Schipol airport was the most used airport for intra-EU travel.

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Author: Donald Armbrecht is a freelance writer and social media manager.

Image: A British Airways aircraft taxis past BA tail-fins at Heathrow Airport, west London. REUTERS/Toby Melville