For a long time Heathrow has been the busiest airport in Europe, having seen off challenges from the likes of Schipol (Amsterdam), Charles de Galle (Paris) and Frankfurt. We also understand that Heathrow is poised to announce an expansion plan with the planned third runway at the heart of its expansion.
However, Heathrow may have already met its match in the new-ish Istanbul Airport, which has announced it has overtaken London Heathrow as the European airport to handle the most passengers on one given day.
Istanbul Airport recorded 134,893 arrivals and 137,239 departures on 27 July, 2025 (a total of 272,132), topping Heathrow’s 268,000 figure recorded on 30 June, 2024.
Istanbul Airport goes on to say that the achievement underscores its “growing significance in global aviation”, which is backed by its official title of “the world’s most connected airport”, which was announced in the ACI Europe 2025 Airport Industry Connectivity Report. Travel data provider OAG also confirmed Istanbul Airport as the busiest airport in Europe, with Heathrow ranked second. Its rankings are based on the number of available seats, determined by the frequency of international and domestic flights.
Istanbul Airport operates three runways as compared to Heathrow’s two, which enables 148 aircraft movements an hour and offers connections to over 330 destinations worldwide, while Heathrow serves 230 destinations. And it has not stopped there – the airport is undergoing a four-phase construction project, due to be completed in 2028, as part of a strategic effort to drive growth and become the largest airport in Europe. This includes further runways suggesting that growth is unlikely to taper off soon.
However, behind this story is a tale of two different things that Heathrow is unlikely to match even with it’s expansion:
First, Istanbul Airport sits in a strategically key location in the modern world. Heathrow’s position is substantially baed on it’s key location for trans-Atlantic traffic. For decades that gave an unassailable advantage. However, the giant inter-connector hubs in the Gulf (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha etc) showed that with global growth there was a much bigger market sitting at the cross-roads of Europe, Asia and Africa. Istanbul Airport, with its location at the far South Eastern corner (the exact opposite of London at the far North West) is the best placed location in Europe to replicate the Gulf inter-connector strategy.
Second, in Turkish Airlines it now has an airline with its central hub at Istanbul that has the funds and the ambition to challenge the likes of Emirates and Etihad. It has also been transformed from the, frankly, ropey carrier I first tried in the 1980s to one with a huge, modern fleet and excellent in-flight service. By contrast, it’s a long time since you could say of BA that is “the World’s favourite airline” (trust me – it was once the best in the world) and it’s global reach has if anything shrunk.
So when you notice Turkish Airlines coming up more often on flight searches, and are wondering if connecting through Istanbul makes sense, the answer is that it does. But can I also beg that if you do then do a stopover for a day or two. Wherever else you are going, Istanbul remains one of the greatest destinations.
Related post: Gatwick eclipsing Heathrow as the gateway to Africa