Passenger numbers in 2024 were practically on a level with the pre-crisis year 2019, and 2024 was the second-busiest year in the airport’s history after 2019 on an annual basis.

In 2024, 31.2 million passengers passed through Zurich Airport. Compared to last year, this corresponds to an increase of 8%. Compared to 2019, passenger numbers were at 99%.

The number of air traffic movements was 261,103 in 2024, an increase of 6% compared to 2023 and 5% below the 2019 level.

Passenger numbers therefore increased more strongly than the number of flight movements.

As a result, seat occupancy rose by 2.5 percentage points to 80.6% in 2024 compared to 2019.

Zurich Airport said the reason for this is on the one hand, larger aircraft were deployed and, on the other, the aircraft are better utilised.

A total of 436,032 tons of cargo were handled at Zurich Airport in 2024.

Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of 15% and compared to 2019, a decrease of 3%.

Key traffic figures for Zurich Airport in 2024.

In the 2024 calendar year, Zurich Airport was directly connected to 198 cities in 74 countries by 68 airlines.

In Europe, the destinations with the most passengers were London, Berlin and Amsterdam. Intercontinental destinations were the metropolises of New York, Dubai and Bangkok.

Flughafen Zürich AG, which operates the airport, will report in detail on the course of business in 2024 on 7 March 2025.

Key traffic figures December 2024

In December 2024, 2,372,643 passengers passed through Zurich Airport, corresponding to an increase of 8% compared to last year.

In December, the number of local passengers was 1,667,212.

Transfer passengers amounted to 30%, equal to 701’168 passengers.

Year on year, air traffic movements increased by 6% to 20,048 takeoffs or landings.

A monthly comparison shows that air traffic movements are at 99% of the 2019 level.

Like-for-like, passenger levels were 102% of those reached in December 2019 for Zurich Airport.

The average passenger per movement figure counts at 133, the same number as last year.

The average seat load factor was at 78% (+1 percentage point vs. previous year).

A total of 37,392 tons of freight were transported at Zurich Airport during the month of December.

This led to an increase of 8% in freight volume compared to last year.

Compared to December 2019, freight volume decreased by 3%.

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