Air passenger traffic in Romania up 8.1% in first quarter of 2025

Romania’s air passenger traffic increased by 8.1% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year, rising from 5.18 million to nearly 5.6 million passengers, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS) quoted by Economica.net.

The busiest airports were Bucharest’s Henri Coandă (also known as Otopeni Airport), which handled over 3.5 million passengers (1.82 million departures and 1.73 million arrivals), followed by Cluj-Napoca’s Avram Iancu Airport with 672,900 passengers, and Iași International Airport with 452,400.

In terms of international arrivals, the top ten airports of origin for passengers landing in Romania on scheduled flights were London Luton (236,137 passengers), Milan Bergamo (129,590), Istanbul International (88,528), Brussels Charleroi (81,746), Munich (76,898), Madrid Barajas (72,046), Paris Beauvais (71,899), Dortmund (69,008), Rome Fiumicino (62,946), and Bologna (62,817).

As for departures, the most popular international destinations from Romania on regular flights were also led by London Luton (261,327 passengers), followed by Milan Bergamo (142,119), Brussels Charleroi (89,481), Munich (83,536), Istanbul International (82,216), Paris Beauvais (78,045), Dortmund (77,054), Madrid Barajas (72,422), Barcelona (69,213), Rome Fiumicino (67,017), Vienna (66,335), London Stansted (64,888), and Bologna (63,117).

By country, the most frequent destinations for passengers departing on scheduled international flights from Romania were Italy (539,547 passengers), the United Kingdom (452,839), Germany (337,022), Spain (242,808), France (183,120), Belgium (104,121), Turkey (97,219), the Netherlands (93,958), the United Arab Emirates (77,074), and Austria (66,923).

Domestic air traffic was also concentrated around three main airports: Henri Coandă in Bucharest accounted for 49.4% of all domestic passengers, Cluj-Napoca for 18.7%, and Timișoara’s Traian Vuia Airport for 13.1%.

INS noted that air travel remains the preferred mode of transport for long distances, but is increasingly used for medium and even short distances. Romania currently has 17 airports, all equipped for international air traffic.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Cateyeperspective/Dreamstime.com)