More passengers, fewer flights at airports

Swiss and easyJet were the biggest flight operators last year in Switzerland Keystone

The three biggest Swiss airports saw more passengers last year than ever before, although the number of flights went down. Planes are now on average larger and more often filled to capacity, according to the Zurich airport operator.

Zurich was the country’s busiest flights’ hub in terms of passengers – nearly 25 million passed through, a rise of 0.3% on the previous year. Although the total includes 63,000 more passengers than in 2012, the number of take-offs and landings decreased by 2.9%.

Swiss was by far the most important airline with a 57% market share at the airport. In comparison, Air Berlin had the second largest share of business with 5.5%.

easyJet was the biggest operator at Basel-Mulhouse. They saw a growth in passenger numbers of 17% last year – taking the budget airline’s market share at Basel to 54%. The most popular destination was London.

Overall, the EuroAirport counted nearly 5.9 million passengers in 2013, a 10% rise and it remained more popular with the Swiss than with the French or the Germans.

In Geneva demand was up too; passenger numbers increased by 3.9% to 14.4 million, with easyJet and Swiss being the airlines of choice.