Leading airlines in Europe based on passenger numbers 2021

Despite a difficult year, Ryanair was the airline company that carried the most travelers in Europe in 2021. With a passenger traffic of 72.4 million, the budget airline outperformed Germany's Lufthansa Group by more than 25 million passengers. Lufthansa ranked second, with 46.9 million passengers.

Ryanair

Europe has many well-known airlines that constantly expand their flight destination offers and are popular among European and international travelers alike, boosting city and vacation travel in particular. While the Irish airline Ryanair was among Europe’s ten biggest polluters, it also launched the most new routes in 2018, overtaking other budget airlines such as easyJet and Wizz Air.

A difficult year in the aviation industry

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the aviation industry hard, erasing two decades of global passenger traffic growth in only a couple of months. Government restrictions around the world led to a reduced number of people traveling by air, less flights being performed, and revenue losses for both airports and airlines. Although financial support for the entire industry has been provided, airlines are on the brink of bankruptcy, while some already ceased operations.