Flight volumes in Zurich almost back to pre-corona levels

A total of 255,956 aircraft took off and landed in Zurich last year, according to figures from the airport website analyzed by the news agency AWP. In 2019, the figure was 268,968 aircraft. This means the difference is now just under 5 percent.

In the course of the travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic, flight movements in 2020 slumped to just 40% of the 2019 level. Since then, air traffic has steadily recovered - in 2023, the gap to 2019 was still around 10%.

Autumn and summer vacations strong

The highest traffic volume in 2024 was achieved during the fall vacations. On Friday, October 11, a total of 840 flights were operated to and from Zurich. By month, however, July is once again at the top thanks to the summer vacations - with a total of 24,221 flights. This is also 5.0 percent more than in the previous year. The airport recorded the strongest year-on-year growth in September, with an increase of 11.2% to 23,587 flights.

But the Christmas month of December was also impressive, with an increase of 6.5% to a total of 19,890 flight movements. The highest traffic volume was achieved on the Friday before Christmas, i.e. December 20, when a total of 742 flights were operated to and from Zurich.

The quietest day last year was January 23. Here, just 492 aircraft took off or landed in Zurich.

Zurich Airport will publish detailed passenger and traffic figures for December and for the year as a whole on January 14, 2025.

The flight movement figures at Zurich Airport used for this article are based on daily updated statistics, in which all flights are recorded according to instrument flight rules. This so-called IFR traffic includes scheduled flights as well as cargo, business and private flights. The number of flight movements says nothing about the size of the aircraft handled or their capacity utilization.