Busy Commercial Airports in the European Union

Nov 26, 2018
Heavily Used Airports in the EU

The map above shows the number of airports in each EU state that serve at least 15,000 passengers per year.  France leads all other EU states by a large margin, even ones with a similar geography to hers.

Findings

  • France has the most airports in the European Union that serve at least 15,000 passengers annually at 62.
  • Latvia, Malta, and Slovenia have the least at one each.
  • Portugal which has a considerably smaller landmass has more busy airports than Poland or Romania, both of which are far larger than Portugal.
  • The median number of busy airports in the EU is 6.5, the mean 14.46.

Caveats

  • The data is from 2016.
  • The map is presented in an Albers equal-area conic projection.
  • The choropleth classification is based on Jenks or natural breaks.

Details

There is a clear distinction between former Soviet satellites and the rest of the EU.

France and the United Kingdom make up one-quarter of the Unions busy airports.  Five countries make up half of the busy airports in the EU: France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Italy.  Adding Greece, Sweden, Finland, and Portugal to those makes up three-quarters of the Unions busy airports, meaning that nine countries are responsible for over 75% of the busy airports.

Data

StateAirports (>15,000 Passengers)
Austria6
Belgium5
Bulgaria4
Croatia9
Cyprus2
Czech Republic5
Denmark8
Estonia2
Finland17
France62
Germany41
Greece34
Hungary4
Ireland7
Italy35
Latvia1
Lithuania3
Luxembourg1
Malta1
Netherlands5
Poland12
Portugal13
Romania12
Slovakia4
Slovenia1
Spain38
Sweden30
United Kingdom43

Sources

Eurostat.  2018.  "Number of Commercial Airports (with More Than 15,000 Passenger Units per Year)."  Accessed November 25, 2018.  http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-054100_QID_5E0B9564_UID_-3F171EB0&layout=TIME,C,X,0;GEO,L,Y,0;TRA_INFR,L,Z,0;INDICATORS,C,Z,1;&zSelection=DS-054100TRA_INFR,AIRP;DS-054100INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;&rankName1=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName2=TRA-INFR_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=GEO_1_2_0_1&rankName4=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&sortC=ASC_-1_FIRST&rStp=&cStp=&rDCh=&cDCh=&rDM=true&cDM=true&footnes=false&empty=false&wai=false&time_mode=NONE&time_most_recent=false&lang=EN&cfo=%23%23%23%2C%23%23%23.%23%23%23.

Filed under: Cartography