Traffic volumes Zurich

2024 the year with the second largest passenger volumes

In 2024, 8% more passengers used Zurich Airport than in the previous year. Whereas passenger volumes remained muted at the beginning of the year, they exceeded the pre-crisis levels in May, September, October and December. In addition, there were several peak days with more than 110,000 passengers.

Accounting for the largest proportion of passengers, the local market was down roughly 2% on the pre-crisis figure. Passenger volumes in the transfer market grew by 1% compared with 2019, causing the proportion of transfer passengers to widen slightly to 30%. In the summer months, the local market gained momentum as a result of leisure travel. The transfer market made up for the flat local market in the first quarter, subsequently reaching pre-crisis levels for the most part.

The individual regions addressed by Zurich Airport revealed disparate trends. Europe, the most important market, saw 8% year-on-year growth in passenger volumes, with numbers up 1% on 2019. This was primarily driven by strong demand for leisure flights to southern destinations such as Spain, Italy and Turkey.

The intercontinental market expanded by 7% over the previous year and contributed one quarter of passenger volumes. However, in terms of a recovery to 2019 figures, it underperformed at 94%. Whereas North America was 8% up on the pre-crisis level, the recovery in the Middle East slowed slightly to 88% due to the conflict in that region, which primarily had a negative impact on destinations in Israel and Lebanon. On the other hand, the Far East gained momentum, with passenger volumes rising to 82% of the pre-crisis figure. Consequently, this region now accounts for the third largest proportion of passenger volumes after Europe and North America.

In the reporting year, the home carrier Swiss transported 52% of passenger volumes, while Edelweiss Air held a share of 10%. Accounting for 2% of passengers at Zurich Airport, EasyJet exceeded Eurowings and Lufthansa for the first time since 2019. Lufthansa Group companies contributed 67% to passenger volumes. The Lufthansa Group carried 95% of the transfer passengers.

Record seat load factor and more passengers per flight movement

The number of flight movements in scheduled and charter services did not grow as quickly year-on-year as passenger volumes. For the second year in a row, this resulted in a new record for annual seat load factor in the scheduled and charter segment at around 81%. On average, 136 passengers were on board per flight movement, roughly six more than in 2019.

The number of flight movements in general aviation dropped by 6% over the previous year. This is equivalent to a decline of roughly 2% compared with 2019.

Further growth in freight

After the damper arising in the previous year, freight volumes grew by 15% in 2024. With a share of 70%, air freight shipments recovered at an above-average rate over the previous year but fell 9% short of pre-crisis volumes. The heightened demand for road freight returned in the reporting year, increasing by 13% over the pre-crisis figure. Freight-only aircraft transported roughly 15% more freight compared with 2019. However, 97% of air cargo was transported as belly freight in passenger aircraft.

The muted performance of air freight compared with road freight was due to shortfalls in freight capacity on scheduled flights. It was lower than in 2019 as a result of the high seat load factor and the smaller number of flight movements.

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