Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport remained the busiest airport in the European Union by number of commercial flights in 2025, according to the latest figures released by Eurostat.
Schiphol handled 488,000 scheduled and non-scheduled commercial flights during the year, ahead of Paris Charles de Gaulle with 476,000 flights and Frankfurt with 457,000. Schiphol therefore handled around 12,000 more commercial flights than Charles de Gaulle.
The Netherlands’ main airport has now retained its lead over Charles de Gaulle for three consecutive years. Schiphol first narrowly outpaced the French airport in the latest Eurostat series in 2023, when it recorded 453,000 commercial flights against 451,000 at Charles de Gaulle.
The gap widened considerably in 2024, when Schiphol registered 484,000 flights compared with 463,000 at Charles de Gaulle. In 2025, traffic at both airports increased again, although Charles de Gaulle recovered some of the gap.
Charles de Gaulle nevertheless remains the larger airport by passenger numbers. In 2024, it handled around 70.3 million passengers, compared with 66.8 million at Schiphol. Schiphol’s position as the EU’s busiest airport therefore refers specifically to the number of commercial flights rather than the number of passengers carried.
Schiphol also remains one of Europe’s most important connecting hubs. According to the Airports Council International Europe’s 2025 connectivity rankings, Istanbul Airport had the highest hub connectivity in Europe, followed by Frankfurt, while Amsterdam Schiphol ranked third and Charles de Gaulle fourth. Hub connectivity measures how many useful onward flight connections an airport can provide passengers, taking into account connection times and the quality of the routing.
Schiphol performed even more strongly for direct European connectivity. ACI Europe ranked it first in Europe for direct connectivity to other European destinations, while it ranked second overall for direct connectivity behind Istanbul.
Overall, the European aviation industry continued its recovery from the Covid pandemic. The EU recorded 6.9 million commercial flights in 2025, an increase of 3.8% from 6.7 million in 2024 and close to the 7 million flights recorded in 2019 before the pandemic.
Charter flights and other non-scheduled commercial services accounted for 8.5% of all flights, with traffic peaking during the summer months. August was the busiest month of the year with 693,046 commercial flights, followed by July with 690,855.
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