Record number of tourists in a European country. Poles love him too
In 2023, a record number of passengers were served by airports… in Italy. Never before have so many tourists flown to a southern European country.
A few days ago, we reported that Egypt in 2023 recorded absolute records in terms of the number of guests. Last year it was visited by 14.9 million tourists. The previous record was set in 2010, when 14.7 million people came here. It turns out, however, that this is not the only record holder among tourists.
The country in Europe also did well last year. Italian airports served as many as 192 million passengers. So many of them have never flown here.
Italy is breaking popularity records
The number of passengers at Italian airports reached a record level in 2023. Italian airports have never had such a busy period, which means that the country’s tourism industry has fully returned to normal after the pandemic.
According to the latest data from the association managing Italian airports, Assaeroporti, after several difficult years for the Italian tourism industry, travelers are returning with a vengeance.
Data shows that a record 192.7 million people arrived at Italian airports last year, an increase of 2.1%. compared to the number recorded before the pandemic in 2019.
Assaeroporti noted that this is the end of the bad years associated with the pandemic. At the same time, the organization revealed that significantly fewer flights arrived in Italy – 1,601,059, which is a decrease of 2.6%. compared to 2019. However, this is beneficial from an environmental point of view.
Rome’s airports handled record numbers of passengers
By far the highest percentage of passengers – 40.5 million – was served by Rome’s Fiumicino airport, followed by Milan Malpensa (26.1 million), Bergamo (16 million), Naples (12.4 million) and Venice (11.4 million).
The Sicilian airport of Catania was in sixth place (10.7 million passengers), followed by Bologna (10 million), Milan Linate (9.4 million), Palermo (8.1 million) and Bari (6.5 million). .
“The year 2023 ended with almost 200 million passengers, which is an absolute record for Italian airports,” said Carlo Borgomeo, president of Assaeroporti.
However, he added that while these numbers were impressive, they were not without problems. The year 2023 was characterized by strong turbulence. This concerns flight price increases, the constant postponement of the ITA-Lufthansa agreement, and the topic of the city aviation tax.
