# The Board Flipped in 2015

Romania's largest air destination is Luton, a town of 225,300 people. It has held first place without a break since 2015.

## The first names on the board

In 2024, 1,886,522 passengers travelled between Romanian airports and Luton — 2.1 times what Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted took together (902,850), and more than every route between Romania and Spain (1,809,436). The second name is Bergamo, a Lombard city of 122,077 people, with 1,295,510 passengers, more than Rome's two airports combined (1,057,787). Third is Munich, with 871,412. Fourth is Bucharest, with 814,765 passengers on domestic routes. Luton and Bergamo together come to 3,182,032, more than every route between Romania and Germany (2,587,511).

## The year it flipped

In 2001 the busiest destination was Tel Aviv, with 173,215 passengers. First place then moved between Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna, and from 2009 Munich held it for six years running. In 2015 Luton took first place with 908,290 passengers and kept it for ten years running: 1,810,679 in 2019, 1,886,522 in 2024.

## The door, not the city

Beauvais, a town of almost 56,000, took 731,406 passengers, 1.9 times what Paris Charles de Gaulle took (379,755). Charleroi took 763,321, 6.4 times Brussels Zaventem (119,021). Memmingen, an Allgäu town of fewer than 45,000 people, took 444,348, 3.4 times Berlin Brandenburg (129,845). Of all traffic between Romania and London's four airports, Luton takes 67.6%.

## Every airport has its own Europe

At Sibiu, 63.4% of 2024 traffic was with Germany. At Târgu Mureș, 52.8% of a four-route board goes to Budapest. At Bacău and Craiova, Italy takes over 43%. At Suceava, Luton alone accounts for 39.8% of the whole year. At Oradea, 52.4% of traffic leaves for Bucharest. Otopeni spreads 13,896,824 passengers across 64 routes, and the busiest of them, to Bergamo, does not reach 4%. Of the ten airports with traffic in 2024, nine have Luton among their top three destinations, and at Iași, Suceava, Bacău and Craiova it comes first.

## The growth

Between 2005 and 2024, traffic at Romanian airports rose 7.3-fold, from 3,008,364 passengers to 22,022,106. Of everything flown in 2024, 65.8% went to destinations that appeared on no Romanian board at all in 2005.

## How the figures were worked out

The figures are the ones Romania reports to the statistical office of the European Union, for every pair made up of a Romanian airport and a partner airport, year by year from 2001 to 2024, both directions together. A passenger counts once for each flight. Routes between two Romanian airports appear in the returns of both, so in the national total they are counted once. The airports at Constanța, Arad, Satu Mare and Tulcea have no routes of their own. The last complete year is 2024.

Traffic figures: Eurostat, "Air passenger transport between the main airports of Romania and their main partner airports" (avia_par_ro). Population figures: Office for National Statistics (Luton, 2021 census), ISTAT (Bergamo), INSEE (Beauvais), Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik (Memmingen).

The full page, with a board where you can choose the airport and the year: https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/

How many airports Romania has, and which is nearest to your town: https://mariuscomper.uk/aeroporturi-romania/en/

## Every airport's board

- [Bucharest Otopeni](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/otopeni/) — Bergamo
- [Cluj-Napoca](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/cluj/) — Bucharest Otopeni
- [Iași](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/iasi/) — Luton
- [Timișoara](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/timisoara/) — Bucharest Otopeni
- [Suceava](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/suceava/) — Luton
- [Sibiu](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/sibiu/) — Munich
- [Bacău](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/bacau/) — Luton
- [Craiova](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/craiova/) — Luton
- [Târgu Mureș](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/targu-mures/) — Budapest
- [Oradea](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/oradea/) — Bucharest Otopeni
- [Bucharest Băneasa](https://mariuscomper.uk/panoul-de-plecari/en/baneasa/) — Luton