Italian airports handled a record 230.1 million passengers in 2025, about 19% more than before the pandemic. Growth has carried on into 2026. We combined official traffic figures with a year of AirAdvisor flight data to show where Italy flies, who flies it, and which airports run late.
Why this matters: Italy is the EU's third-largest air passenger market, according to Eurostat, and its airports sit near the top of Europe's delay tables. For travellers, the choice of airport changes the odds of a long delay. For journalists, Italy shows what happens when a fast-growing, low-cost-heavy market meets summer peaks.
Key Takeaways
- Milan Bergamo had the worst record of any large airport in Europe: 9.2% of departures arrived an hour or more late.
- Flights departing Italy arrived 60+ minutes late on 5.4% of departures, against a European average of 4.1%. Italy ranks 5th of 31 countries.
- Passengers flying between Italy and countries outside the EU rose by 73% between 2019 and 2025, far faster than domestic travel (12%).
Italian Air Traffic, 2019 to 2025
Italy lost almost three-quarters of its air passengers in 2020. The line below shows how quickly the market came back.
Source: Assaeroporti, Dati di traffico, annual totals for all Italian airports, 2019 to 2025.
Italian airports passed their 2019 total in 2023 and kept growing, adding another 33 million passengers over the next two years. Growth slowed to 5% in 2025, from 11% in 2024. Researchers at ICCSAI (University of Bergamo) link that slowdown to geopolitical uncertainty and late deliveries of new aircraft. ENAC, the national aviation authority, counts commercial passengers slightly differently and reports 229.7 million for 2025, also up 5%.
Italy's Busiest Airports
Eight Italian airports handled more than 10 million passengers in 2025. Rome and Milan hold the top three places.
Source: Assaeroporti, Dati di traffico, annual totals for all Italian airports, 2019 to 2025.
Rome Fiumicino handled 51.3 million passengers, about 22% of the national total and more than Malpensa and Bergamo combined. Milan's three airports together served 59.5 million, more than Rome's two. Bergamo was the only big airport to shrink in 2025, down 2.4%. Further down the table, smaller airports grew fastest: Trieste rose 25% and Pescara 32%. For the wider European picture, see our busiest airports ranking.
Seasonality: How Traffic Changes Through the Year
Italian air travel follows the tourist calendar closely. Compare the summer peak with the winter months, and the 2026 line with 2025.
Source: Assaeroporti, Dati di traffico, monthly totals for all Italian airports, January 2025 to September 2026.
In 2025, August carried 24.4 million passengers, 1.8 times as many as January. Every month of 2026 so far has beaten the same month of 2025, and August 2026 was the busiest month in the period shown, with 25.8 million passengers. From January to September 2026, Italian airports handled 187.1 million passengers, up 5.5% on the same period of 2025.
Which Airports Are Growing Fastest in 2026
National growth hides very different stories at airport level. This chart covers the 14 busiest airports, plus the national total for comparison.
Source: Assaeroporti, Dati di traffico, January to September 2026 compared with January to September 2025.
Turin grew fastest at 18%, followed by Palermo and Bari. The two biggest airports, Fiumicino and Malpensa, grew by about 1% each, well below the national rate. Catania was the only one of these airports to lose passengers. ICCSAI attributes part of the 2026 growth at Naples and Milan Linate to the reassignment of some ITA Airways slots.
Domestic vs International Passengers
International travel drives almost all of Italy's growth. The bars split passengers by where they flew to or from.
Source: Assaeroporti, Dati di traffico, annual totals for all Italian airports, 2019 to 2025.
In 2025, 69% of passengers were on international flights. Domestic traffic was flat on 2024 and only 12% above 2019. Flights outside the EU grew fastest: 53.2 million passengers in 2025, up 73% on 2019, while EU traffic grew 7%. ENAC names Spain as Italy's top country market and Rome Fiumicino to Madrid as its busiest international route.
The Airlines That Dominate Italian Skies
Low-cost airlines carry most passengers in Italy. ENAC counts 63% of 2025 passengers on low-cost carriers, or 145.4 million people. Seat capacity shows which airlines lead.
Source: Air Service One analysis of Cirium schedule data, reported by BusinessMobility.travel, 6 February 2026.
Ryanair offered more than 46 million seats at Italian airports in 2025, close to three times as many as ITA Airways. ITA's capacity fell 14% in 2025 while Ryanair's rose 5.4%. easyJet and Wizz Air are close behind ITA, and Italian newcomer Aeroitalia grew almost 14%. For context across the continent, see our ranking of the largest airlines in Europe.
One Airline, One Airport: How Concentrated Italian Airports Are
At many Italian airports, a single airline sells most of the seats. ICCSAI measured the share held by the largest carrier at the country's busiest airports.
Source: ICCSAI Fact Book 2026, University of Bergamo, presented in Rome on 4 June 2026.
Ryanair is the largest airline at 15 of the 20 airports ICCSAI studied, and holds more than half the seats at 10 of them. At Milan Bergamo, it offers 80% of all seats. Rome Fiumicino, Malpensa and Venice have the most varied airline mix. ITA Airways' share at Fiumicino fell to 24.9% in 2025, from 27.1% in 2024, and easyJet remains the largest carrier at Malpensa.
How Italy Compares with Europe on Delays
We compared every flight departing Italian airports over 12 months with the average for 31 European countries. Look at the gap on the first two measures, and at the cancellation bars.
Source: AirAdvisor's flight database, flights departing airports in the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026.
Italian departures were about 31% more likely to arrive an hour or more late than the European average. Only Cyprus, Portugal, Greece and Malta did worse. Cancellations tell a different story: Italy cancelled slightly fewer flights than average. Delays of three hours or more matter most to passengers, because that is when EU compensation rules start to apply; the reform deal agreed by EU institutions in June 2026 kept that three-hour threshold. Our European airports statistics cover all 31 countries.
Italian Airports with the Most Delays
All 12 Italian airports in this chart handled enough flights to rank among Europe's large airports. Most sit above the European average.
Source: AirAdvisor's flight database, flights departing airports in the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026.
Milan Bergamo tops the list at 9.2%, the worst rate of any large airport in Europe, and it also had Europe's highest share of departures arriving three or more hours late (0.92%). Palermo, Naples, Malpensa and Catania all rank among Europe's ten most delayed large airports. Milan Linate is the exception, and the only Italian airport below the European average; Turin sits just above it. Our list of the worst airports for delays in Europe has the full ranking.
Italian Airports with the Most Cancellations
Cancellations follow a different pattern from delays. Several airports with high delay rates rarely cancel flights.
Source: AirAdvisor's flight database, flights departing airports in the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026.
Catania cancelled 3.37% of departures, the highest rate of any large airport in Europe and about three times the European average. Florence comes second at 2.09%. Bergamo sits at the other end: it cancelled only 0.36% of flights, among the lowest rates in Europe. At Bergamo, flights tend to run late and still operate; at Catania, more of them never leave.
References and Sources
- AirAdvisor's flight database, airport and country reports, data for 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026, accessed 13 November 2026.
- Assaeroporti, Dati di traffico, annual and monthly traffic exports for all Italian airports, 2019 to September 2026, accessed 13 November 2026: assaeroporti.com
- Assaeroporti, Dati di traffico aeroportuale, Consuntivo 2025 (airport commentary notes), January 2026: assaeroporti.com
- ENAC, "Enac pubblica i Dati di Traffico 2025", 11 May 2026: enac.gov.it
- ENAC, Dati di Traffico 2025, May 2026: enac.gov.it
- ICCSAI, Fact Book 2026, "Tra un'epoca e l'altra: verso quale trasporto aereo?", presentation by Renato Redondi, 4 June 2026: ageei.eu
- BusinessMobility.travel, "Ryanair domina nei cieli italiani: nel 2025 triplicata l'offerta rispetto a Ita" (Air Service One analysis of Cirium data), 6 February 2026: businessmobility.travel
- Teleborsa, "Traffico aereo nel 2025, aeroporti italiani superano 229 milioni passeggeri" (ENAC figures on domestic, international and low-cost traffic), 12 May 2026: teleborsa.it
- Eurostat, Air passenger transport by reporting country (avia_paoc), 2025 data: ec.europa.eu/eurostat
- European Parliamentary Research Service, air passenger rights revision, updated 30 June 2026: europarl.europa.eu
Methodology
Passenger figures come from Assaeroporti, the Italian airports association, which publishes monthly and cumulative traffic for 41 Italian airports; figures for some airports are supplied by Aeroporti 2030. Annual totals use each December's cumulative file, and the 2026 figures cover January to September 2026, the latest month published on 13 November 2026. The domestic and international split uses commercial passengers and excludes direct transit and general aviation. "Outside the EU" equals international passengers minus the EU share reported by Assaeroporti. ENAC publishes a slightly lower 2025 total (229.7 million) because it counts commercial passengers only; we quote ENAC for its low-cost share, country and route rankings.
Airline seat figures are Air Service One's analysis of Cirium schedule data as reported by BusinessMobility.travel, and the largest-airline shares are ICCSAI's calculation of seats offered in 2025. These measure capacity, which differs from passengers carried. Delay and cancellation figures come from AirAdvisor's flight database for 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026, covering departures. A flight counts as delayed when it reached the arrival gate 60 or more (or 180 or more) minutes after schedule; delayed counts exclude cancelled flights. The European average is the total for 31 countries (EU-27, UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland). The database stores one record per flight number, so codeshare flights appear more than once; we therefore publish percentages only. Airports qualify as large with at least 50,000 flight records. Percentages are rounded to one or two decimal places. All figures are historical; no forecasts are used.
