Spain tops the list of destinations for Swiss holidaymakers
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Spain tops the list of destinations for Swiss holidaymakers
Spain was the most popular destination for Swiss air passengers in 2024, with 3.1 million departures recorded by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
Britain was a close second, with 2.89 million passengers departing from Swiss airports.
Germany (1.5 million), Portugal (1.49 million), France (1.36 million) and Italy (1.35 million) follow in the ranking of the most popular air destinations, according to data published on Wednesday by the FSO. In total, 79% of Swiss passengers flew to European destinations.
The departure airport has a strong influence on the choice of destinations, notes the FSO. From Zurich, four times as many passengers flew to Germany as to France, while in Geneva the trend is reversed.
Outside Europe, 8% of passengers flew to Asia, an equal percentage to the Americas (North, Central and South), 5% to Africa and 0.4% to Oceania.
Seasonal trends
July remains the busiest month, with 2.6 million departures, in line with the usual trend. Conversely, January and November are quieter, with around 1.5 million passengers each.
Passenger volumes vary greatly according to season and destination. According to the FSO, destinations such as Cape Town (South Africa) and Phuket (Thailand) are particularly popular in winter, while Mediterranean islands such as Mallorca (Spain) and Crete (Greece) are more popular between April and October.
In total, 24 million passengers took off from a Swiss airport in 2024. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2019, this figure reached 25 million.
Translated from French by DeepL/mga
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
More
Why Switzerland is among the ten fastest-warming countries in the world
More
In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?
More
Suicides in Switzerland quadruple among older people
More
French gangs target luxury cars in Switzerland
More
Renewed controversy in Switzerland over US fighter jets – explained
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.