Europe's top 20 airline groups by passengers 2022: Ryanair extends its lead
This report presents the ranking of Europe's top 20 airline groups by passenger numbers in 2022 - the first such ranking compiled by CAPA since 2019. After the disruption caused by COVID-19, the rankings largely resumed their pre-pandemic order in 2022.
In 2022 Ryanair Group extended its lead as Europe's biggest airline group by passenger numbers. Its 160 million passengers in the calendar year were 58% more than Lufthansa Group's 102 million. In 2019 Ryanair had been only 5% bigger than Lufthansa Group.
The 2022 top six were ranked the same as in 2019, although Wizz Air displaced Aeroflot Group in seventh place. SunExpress and Volotea made the 2022 top 20, whereas Finnair and LOT Polish lost the top 20 positions they had held in 2019.
Pre-pandemic rankings were largely resumed, but in most cases passenger numbers were not. Only five of the top 20 groups carried more passengers in 2022 than in 2019; four of these were LCCs.
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