Istanbul Airport surpassed London Heathrow as Europe’s busiest airport for a single day on 27 July 2025 with a total of 272,132 passengers.
The airport now handles 148 aircraft movements an hour following the addition of a third runway in April 2025. It ranks as Europe’s busiest airport, according to travel data provider OAG, based on the number of available seats.
With connections to over 330 destinations, it outperforms Heathrow’s 230 destinations.
Istanbul Airport’s ongoing construction project aims to solidify its status as the largest airport in Europe by 2028.
Alice Henderson shared, “The achievement underscores its growing significance in global aviation. It is investing €331.2m on the construction of the East-West and back-up North-South runways. OAG also recently named Istanbul Airport as the busiest airport in Europe. New routes to the Turkish hub include Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways’ service from Tokyo.”
