Data extracted in November 2024.
Planned article update: December 2025.
Highlights
This article analyses recent freight and mail data on air transport in the European Union (EU), EFTA countries and 4 of the candidate countries, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye. It presents data on air freight and mail transported. The role of air transport in freight transport is less significant than in passenger transport, as aircraft are an expensive transport mode in terms of tonne-kilometres and only competitive for longer distances and relatively light high-value or perishable goods.
The article distinguishes between national (domestic), intra- and extra-EU transport, and also takes a look at the relative significance and ranking of airports.
Air freight and mail transport in the EU decreased by -5.2% between 2022 and 2023
Total freight and mail transport in the EU decreased by -5.2% in 2023 compared with 2022 (Table 1), reaching 13.1 million tonnes. National, intra and extra-EU transport all decreased, by 4.1%, 5.0% and 5.3% respectively.
Between 2022 and 2023, freight and mail transport by air decreased in 18 out the 27 EU countries. The highest decrease was registered by Slovakia (-38.6%), followed by Estonia (-22.6%), Luxembourg (-18.0%), Bulgaria (-17.0%), Greece (-14.2%), Sweden (-13.6%) and Belgium (-12.2%). By contrast, a large increase was recorded in Spain (+17.9%), Malta (+17.6%) and Finland (+9.0%). A noticeable increase was also recorded in the candidate country Serbia (+685.8%).
In 2023, the highest volume of freight and mail was loaded and unloaded at German airports, with 4.6 million tonnes. Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the candidate country Türkiye were the other countries with more than 1 million tonnes of freight and mail loaded and unloaded in 2023.
Figure 1 indicates that the extra-EU transport represented 81.8% of the total air freight and mail transport. It was the main origin/destination far ahead of intra-EU transport (15.0%) and domestic transport (3.2%). Compared with 2022, the shares were almost identical. Extra-EU transport lost only 0.1 percentage points (pp) in 2023 to the benefit of intra-EU.
Map 1 gives a picture of the extra-EU market. Eastern Asia was the main origin/destination of freight and mail transported by air in 2023, with 25.0% of the total extra-EU transport, closely followed by North America (23.4%). The lowest share was observed for Australasia, S. Sea Is. & Antarctica (0.03%). Increases were observed in transport with Southern Asia (+8.7%), Eastern Asia (+3.4%) and South America (+1.9%). By contrast, transport with the other world regions decreased between 2022 and 2023. In relative terms, the highest decreases were recorded for transport with Central Asia (-21.8%), North America (-12.0%) and Europe except EU (-10.8%).
In 2023, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt Main were the main EU airport in terms of tonnes of freight and mail loaded/unloaded, each with 1.9 million tonnes (Table 2). Leipzig Halle and Amsterdam Schiphol were the other EU ports with more than 1 million tonnes. When looking at the number of flights, the ranking was slightly different. Leipzig Halle was first with 54 844 flights, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle (37 722 flights), Köln Bonn (35 998 flights), Milano Malpensa (25 659 flights) and Frankfurt Main (23 332 flights).
Among the top 20 airports, 9 registered a growth between 2022 and 2023 in terms of total freight and mail loaded/unloaded. Roma Fiumicino recorded the highest increase (+33.7%), followed by Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas (+19.8%). By contrast, Frankfurt Hahn recorded the highest decrease (-32.2%) between 2022 and 2023, followed by Milano Malpensa (-18.1%), Liège (-14.3%) and Köln Bonn (-10.3%).
For long distances over 2 000 km, 99% of the total transport was extra-EU
Figure 2 presents freight and mail transport by type of transport and distance class. For long distances over 2 000 km, 99% of the total transport was extra-EU in 2023, 2022 and 2021. For distances between 1 500 and 1 999 km, extra-EU transport represented 55% of the total in 2023. In 2021, this share was 66%. Intra-EU transport of freight and mail was predominant in distances inferior to 1 500 km. In 2023, it represented 76% of total transport in the 1 000–1 499 km distance class, 68% in 500–999 km class and 53% in 300–499 km class. When looking at distances lower than 300 km, intra-EU transport represented 52%, while national claimed 42% of the total freight and mail on board.
Source: Eurostat (avia_goodis)
Source data for tables and graphs
<datadetails>
Data sources
More recent freight and mail data are available in the Eurostat database for several countries. Eurostat is encouraging reporting countries to provide statistics on air transport in advance of the regulatory deadline. For certain countries, the data are available already up to 3 months after the end of a reference month.
Main definitions
The definitions used for air transport statistics are included in Regulation (EC) No 1358/2003 of 31 July 2003 implementing Regulation (EC) No 437/2003 of 27 February 2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air. The main definitions are the following:
- On Flight Origin and Destination (OFOD):
Traffic on a commercial air service identified by a unique flight number subdivided by airport pairs in accordance with the point of embarkation and point of disembarkation on that flight. This is linked to the definition of passengers carried.
- Freight and mail loaded/unloaded:
All freight and mail loaded onto or unloaded from an aircraft. This excludes direct transit freight and mail. In principle, information provided in this article is based on On Flight Origin/Destination (OFOD) data. Only when OFOD data have not been reported have airport declarations been used.
- Airport coverage:
In principle, this article covers air transport to and from any airports in the reporting countries with more than 150 000 passengers annually.
Notes on some reporting countries
- Türkiye: until 2022, only provides flight stage data (Dataset A1) (in which there is no information on passengers carried and freight and mail loaded/unloaded) and airport declarations (Dataset C1) in which the partner airport is not provided. National and international transport cannot be calculated.
Double counting: the national aggregates and total intra-EU aggregates exclude any double counting. It includes all the departures figures reported plus ‘a part of’ arrivals declarations, ‘a part of’ including those arrivals for which the corresponding partner airport departure declarations are missing.
Map 1: the component countries comprising the world regions as defined for this map are based on the geonomenclature used by Eurostat for external trade statistics. The components of each world region can be extracted from the aviation domain in the Eurostat online database or obtained upon request. Care should be taken when drawing any conclusions regarding world regional shares, as passengers who either stop over or change planes en route are allocated to the country where they made their connections, rather than the country of first origin or final destination.
In this article
- ":" means "not available"
- "-" means "not applicable"
- "0n" means "less than half the unit used"
- "0" means real zero
</datadetails>
<context>
Context
All figures presented in this article have been extracted from the Eurostat aviation database. The database is available online from the Eurostat web page. </context>
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Transport, see detailed datasets:
- Air transport (avia)
- Air transport measurement – passengers (avia_pa)
- Detailed air passenger transport by reporting country and routes (avia_par)
- Air transport measurement – freight and mail (avia_go)
- Air transport measurement – passengers (avia_pa)
Thematic section
Publications
Selected datasets
- Transport, see selected datasets:
- Air transport (t_avia)
- Air transport of passengers (ttr00012)
- Air transport of goods (ttr00011)
Methodology
- Passenger and freight transport by air/Traffic data/Air transport at regional level (ESMS metadata file - avia_pa_esms)
- Reference Manual on Air Transport Statistics - Version 17 (Methodological manual)
- Glossary for transport statistics – 5th edition – 2019
External links
Legislation
- Regulation (EC) No 1358/2003 of 31 July 2003 implementing Regulation (EC) No 437/2003 of 27 February 2003 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of passengers, freight and mail by air.