iGA Istanbul Airport sets new network record
Sunday 11 June 2023 saw a new airport network record set, as İGA İstanbul Airport handled 1,684 arrivals/departures, beating by 60 flights the previous busiest-ever European airport record of 1,624 daily flights set by Frankfurt Airport on 11 September 2019.
The extra traffic – a +12% surge over the previous Sunday – reflected a major increase in traffic as football fans returned home after attending the 2023 Champions League Final in Istanbul (with flows to the home cities of the CL finalists also up: 54% higher week-on-week at Milan Malpensa, and 5% at Manchester Airport).
The new record-holder is already Europe's busiest airport, finishing Week 23 on a 7-day average of 1,496 daily flights.
The previous three daily arrival/departure records at a European airport were all set in quick succession in pre-pandemic 2019, with the former record held by Frankfurt overtaking in less than a month Paris CDG (1,612 daily flights on 26 August 2019), which in turn replaced Madrid Barajas (1,600 daily flights on 2 June 2019).