Europe's aviation industry by numbers - September 2017 update

Routesonline analyses the European aviation industry, taking a monthly look at the top routes served and revealing the airlines that are dominating the market. We also rank the top ten airports by available seat capacity.

The latest figures for September 2017 - all data provided by OAG

Top European airline routes

Izmir Adnan Menderes (ADB) - Istanbul Ataturk Airport (IST) was the European route with the most capacity during September 2017 at 314,075 available seats. Turkish Airlines had the largest capacity on the route during the month with 185,237 seats, followed by Pegasus Airlines (56,664), Onur Air (40,338) and AtlasGlobal (31,836).

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Top European airlines

Low-cost carrier Ryanair's capacity was 12,448,485 during the month, up by 9.7 percent from 11,351,151 in September 2016. The airline's traffic also grew 10 percent to 11.8 million customers. This was despite Ryanair being forced to cancel 2,100 flights during September and October, caused by a 'mess up' surrounding the planning of pilot holidays. Dublin - London Stansted was the route with the most Ryanair capacity in September at 86,940 available seats.

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Top European airports

London Heathrow remained the top European airport for two-way capacity in September 2017. Of the airports in the top ten, Amsterdam added the most capacity compared with a year earlier. The Dutch airport had 3,501,876 available seats in September 2017, compared with 3,250,079 in September 2016.

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The data:

Top routes (September 2017):

Rank Route Capacity (September 2017)
1 Izmir Adnan Menderes - Istanbul Ataturk 314075
2 London Heathrow - New York J F Kennedy 310066
3 London Heathrow - Dubai International 309581
4 Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas - Barcelona 295780
5 Bergen - Oslo Gardermoen 270874
6 Oslo Gardermoen - Trondheim Vaernes 262494
7 Paris Orly - Toulouse 261350
8 Antalya - Istanbul Ataturk 254601
9 Izmir Adnan Menderes - Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen 240261
10 Berlin Tegel - Munich International 232714

Top airlines:

Rank Airline

Capacity

(Sept-17)

Capacity

(Sept-16)

% change
1 Ryanair 12448485 11351151 9.7%
2 Easyjet 8280462 7667184 8.0%
3 Turkish Airlines 7886336 7609850 3.6%
4 Lufthansa German Airlines 7487965 7409387 1.1%
5 British Airways 5013958 5027585 -0.3%
6 Air France 4895128 4872448 0.5%
7 Aeroflot Russian Airlines 4647877 4043042 15.0%
8 SAS Scandinavian Airlines 3763680 3777251 -0.4%
9 Vueling Airlines 3483030 3466092 0.5%
10 KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines 3377895 3054208 10.6%

Top airports:

Rank Airport

Capacity

(Sept-17)

Capacity

(Sept-16)

% change
1 London Heathrow Apt 4216363 4200276 0.4%
2 Frankfurt International Apt 3767392 3639416 3.5%
3 Paris Charles de Gaulle Apt 3687592 3590581 2.7%
4 Istanbul Ataturk Airport 3638307 3634694 0.1%
5 Amsterdam 3501876 3250079 7.7%
6 Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas Apt 2873202 2721625 5.6%
7 Munich International Airport 2743778 2677842 2.5%
8 Barcelona Apt 2721397 2564194 6.1%
9 London Gatwick Apt 2462507 2412613 2.1%
10 Rome Fiumicino Apt 2439980 2461125 -0.9%
David Casey

David Casey is Editor in Chief of Routes, the global route development community's trusted source for news and information.