Shannon airport wins category at Routes World Awards 2026 as Fiumicino takes overall award

Shannon Airport won the Under 5 Million passenger category.
Shannon operates 40 services, the highest in 17 years.
Rome Fiumicino won the Overall Winner award at Routes World Awards 2026.
Rome Fiumicino handled a record 51.3m passengers in 2025.
Scoot’s Singapore to Vienna route won Route of the Year.

Shannon Airport has been named the winner of the under five million passenger category at the Routes World Awards 2026.

Rome Fiumicino Airport has been named Overall Winner at the Routes World Awards 2026 and also won the Over 30 Million passenger category. The awards were presented during Routes World 2026 in Frankfurt. Rome Fiumicino handled a record 51.3m passengers in 2025, up 4pc, including 10.8m long-haul travellers.

The airport’s 2026 network development programme included more than 40 new routes, over 15 new destinations and four new airlines. North American connectivity reached 22 airports including Seattle with Alaska Airlines and Houston with ITA Airways. Shannon Airport won the Under 5 Million passenger category, recording a 12pc increase in passengers during the first half of 2026.

Shannon’s network reached 40 services, the highest total in 17 years, with five new routes to Rome, Madrid, Warsaw, Poznań and Frankfurt and frequency increases across 12 routes. Air Canada’s Toronto service was secured for summer 2027 and Ryanair expanded to four based aircraft in 2025. Other winners included Cagliari Airport, Edinburgh Airport, Brussels Airport, the Moroccan National Tourist Office, Transavia, Scoot’s Singapore to Vienna route, Will Green of Edinburgh Airport and Peggy Croes of Curacao Airport Partners.

Previously Dublin airport was the 2016 World Routes Award winner for airports in the 20-50 million passengers per year category. Cork airport won the World Routes Marketing Award for airports under 5 million in 2018, while Tourism ireland won the World Routes Marketing Award and the Best Destination Marketing Award at 2015 World Route Awards in Durban.

Federico Scriboni shared “We are proud to receive the Routes World Award. This recognition is a powerful endorsement of our partners’ trust in the impact and effectiveness of our initiatives at Rome FCO.”

Ray O’Driscoll shared “To see Shannon Airport recognised on a global stage with this Routes World Award is a tremendous achievement and one that is richly deserved by our aviation development team. This year Shannon Airport operates 40 services, the highest number in 17 years, including new routes to Madrid, Rome, Frankfurt, Warsaw and Poznań.”