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Zurich airport sees 30% jump in passenger numbers in 2023

airplane at night
Ready for take-off: a plane at Zurich airport. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

Switzerland’s biggest airport saw 28.9 million passengers pass through doors in 2023, an increase of almost 30% year-on-year, but still 8% lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Zurich operator said on Monday evening that it was delighted to have exceeded its stated target of 26 million passengers for 2023. A full recovery in numbers is still expected by 2025, according to a press release.

In 2023, 247,456 aircraft movements were recorded, representing an increase of 14% year-on-year but a 10% drop on the 2019 level.

Meanwhile the airport handled 377,998 tonnes of freight, down 10% year-on-year and down 16% on 2019.

+ Watch: Zurich airport turns 75

In December alone, 2.19 million passengers passed through the airport, up 15% year-on-year but down 6% over five years. They were made up of 1.5 million locals and more than 680,900 transit passengers.

The overall number of aircraft movements at the airport rose by 7% to 18,888 take-offs and landings – 6% less than in December 2019. On average, there were 133 passengers per flight (+5% year-on-year). The seat occupancy rate stagnated at 77%.

Last month, the airport counted 34,688 tonnes of freight, up 2% year-on-year but down 10% on 2019.

Detailed results will be published on March 8.

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

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