European airlines: top 12 LCCs further grew their passenger lead versus non-LCCs in 2025

Posted 30/03/2026 16:11

Europe's top 12 low cost airline brands collectively carried 598 million passengers in 2025, which was a year-on-year increase of 6%.

Non-LCCs carried 416 million passengers - an increase of less than 3%.

The top dozen LCCs extended their lead over the top 12 non-LCCs to 182 million passengers in 2025, from 158 million passengers in 2024.

Moreover, the leading LCCs carried 24% more passengers in 2025 than in 2019, while the non-LCCs were still 4% below their collective 2019 traffic.

Ryanair, Europe's biggest LCC and biggest airline overall by passenger numbers in 2025, had 117% more passengers than the number two LCC - easyJet - and almost three times the traffic of Turkish Airlines, which is Europe's biggest non-LCC brand.

This report ranks the top 12 LCC and non-LCC airline brands in Europe by passenger numbers in 2025.

Summary

Europe’s top 12 low cost carrier (LCC) brands carried 597.7 million passengers in 2025, up 6.1% year on year and 24% above 2019 levels.
Europe’s top 12 non-LCC brands carried 415.9 million passengers in 2025, up 2.6% year on year but still 3.6% below 2019.
The LCCs widened their passenger lead over non-LCCs to 181.8 million in 2025, up from a 158.1 million gap in 2024.
Ryanair remained Europe’s largest airline overall with 206.4 million passengers, 117% more than easyJet and nearly triple Turkish Airlines’ non-LCC total.
Wizz Air was the strongest 2019-to-2025 grower among major LCCs (172% of 2019 traffic), while easyJet, Eurowings, and Norwegian remained below 2019.
Turkish Airlines led the non-LCC ranking with 69.2 million passengers (excluding AJet), ahead of Lufthansa, while only Turkish, Aegean Airlines, and Iberia exceeded 2019 traffic.

Ryanair was again Europe's leading LCC in 2025…

Ryanair comfortably retained its position as Europe's number one LCC brand by passenger numbers in 2025.

It was also Europe's number one airline overall.

…with 117% more passengers than number two easyJet

Ryanair's total of 206.4 million passengers in calendar 2025 was more than double the number two-ranked LCC, easyJet's 94.9 million (117% bigger).

EasyJet, in turn, had almost 26 million more passengers than Wizz Air, which was Europe's number three LCC brand by passenger numbers in 2025, with 68.6 million (one third of Ryanair's total).

Pegasus Airlines, with 43.3 million passengers, overtook Vueling (38.2 million) to claim fourth position in the ranking.

Vueling was the biggest low cost subsidiary of a legacy group

Vueling, an IAG subsidiary, was the biggest LCC brand owned by one of the leading legacy airline groups.

No other LCC carried more than 30 million passengers in 2025, and the fifth ranked LCC was more than 12 million passengers behind Vueling.

In fifth to seventh places were three other low cost brands of legacy groups.

Air France-KLM's Transavia was sixth, with 26.1 million passengers, followed by Lufthansa Group's Eurowings, with 23.7 million, just ahead of Turkish Airlines' AJet, with 23.4 million.

Very close behind them, in ninth among LCCs, was Norwegian, with 23.1 million passengers.

Jet2.com, in 10th place, carried 20.2 million passengers.

SunExpress, with 16.0 million, and the Aeroflot subsidiary Pobeda, with 13.8 million, were the final two airlines in the top dozen European LCCs by passengers in 2025.

Europe's top 12 low cost airline brands by passenger numbers calendar 2025

Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, airline company traffic reports, press reports, UK Civil Aviation Authority.

The top 12 LCCs carried 124% of 2019 passengers in aggregate in 2025

In aggregate, the top 12 LCCs carried 597.7 million passengers in 2025.

This was 124.1% of their 2019 total of 481.8 million, and an increase of 6.1% from the 2024 figure of 563.6 million.

Only three of the top 12 LCCs were below their 2019 traffic level: easyJet (at 98.2%), Eurowings (87.9%), and Norwegian (63.7%).

The strongest increase on 2019 passenger numbers was achieved by Wizz Air (172.3%), followed by AJet (161.4%), SunExpress (158.3%), Jet2.com (157.8%), and Transavia (157.3%).

AJet had the fastest year-on-year growth in the top 12 LCCs

The fastest growing LCC, by year-on-year growth in 2025, was AJet, whose passenger numbers increased by 16.4%, followed by Pegasus (15.4%) and Transavia (12.4%).

No other LCCs achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in 2025.

The slowest growth was for Vueling, whose traffic was almost flat (0.1%), Pobeda (0.7%), and Jet2.com (3.8%).

Collectively, the top 12 LCCs grew by 6.1% year-on-year in 2025.

Turkish Airlines was again the leading non-LCC, with 5% more passengers than Lufthansa

The chart below ranks the top dozen non-LCC airline brands by passenger numbers in 2025.

Turkish Airlines has retained its position at the top of the list, with 69.2 million (note that this excludes the 23.4 million passengers carried by its subsidiary AJet).

This figure is 5% more than second-placed Lufthansa, but is only just more than one third of the passenger numbers of the leading LCC, Ryanair, and 25.7 million fewer passengers than easyJet's.

The national airlines of four western European countries occupied ranks two to five: Lufthansa (65.7 million), British Airways (46.3 million), Air France (42.3 million), and KLM (34.5 million).

Russia's Aeroflot was sixth, with 29.5 million passengers, just ahead of SAS, with an estimated 27.7 million, and Iberia, with 24.8 million.

Ninth-placed SWISS, with 21.5 million passengers, was just ahead of 10th-ranked TUI's 20.2 million (year to Sep-2025).

The top dozen non-LCC brands were completed by Aegean Airlines (17.3 million) and TAP Air Portugal (estimated 16.8 million).

Note that the figure for Aegean Airlines includes its subsidiary Olympic Air, which flies under Aegean's A3 code, and whose traffic numbers are not separately reported.

Europe's top 12 non-LCC airline brands by passenger numbers calendar 2025

^CAPA - Centre for Aviation estimate for 2025.
*SAS year end is Oct.
**TUI Group figure is reported number of customers for its Markets & Airlines division, year end is Sep.
Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, airline company traffic reports, press reports, UK Civil Aviation Authority.

The top 12 non-LCCs carried 96% of 2019 passengers in aggregate in 2025

In aggregate, the top 12 non-LCCs carried 415.9 million passengers in 2025, which was still only 96.4% of their 2019 total of 431.6 million.

Only three of the top 12 non-LCCs carried more passengers than in 2019: Turkish Airlines (115.8% of 2019 traffic), Aegean Airlines (115.3%), and Iberia (110.5%).

Behind them, the closest were SWISS (99.7%), TAP Air Portugal (98.4%), KLM (98.2%), and British Airways (97.1%).

The lowest percentages of 2019 passenger numbers in 2025 were recorded by Aeroflot (79.4%) and Air France (80.5%).

SAS was the fastest growing top 12 non-LCC

The fastest growing non-LCC by year-on-year growth in 2025 was SAS, with estimated growth of 10.0% increase. Note that SAS has not reported its traffic numbers for 2025, and this is a CAPA - Centre for Aviation estimate based on growth scheduled seat numbers.

The next fastest growth was achieved by Turkish Airlines (6.5%), followed Aegean Airlines (5.9%).

Three non-LCCs reported negative growth in 2025: Iberia (-4.1%), Aeroflot (-1.8%) and TUI Group (-0.2%). Slow growth was reported by British Airways (0.4%), Air France (1.2%), and Lufthansa (1.9%).

Collectively, the top 12 non-LCCs grew by 2.6% year-on-year in 2025, slower than the LCCs.

The top 12 LCCs increased their collective lead over the top 12 non-LCCs

The leading dozen LCCs further widened the margin of superiority over their non-LCC counterparts in passenger numbers in 2025.

In 2025 the top 12 LCCs carried 597.7 million passengers, which was 181.8 million more than the non-LCCs' 415.9 million, increasing the gap from 158.1 million in 2024.

In 2019 the top 12 LCC total of 481.8 million was only 50.2 million more than the top 12 non-LCC total of 431.6 million.

Europe's top 12 LCCs and non-LCCs: passenger numbers (million) 2019, 2024 and 2025

Almost irrespective of current global macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, the passenger traffic growth of LCCs is likely to continue to outperform compared with their non-LCC rivals.