ANKARA

Istanbul Airport was Europe's busiest airport in June, welcoming a whopping 5.996 million passengers, according to European airport trade association data released on Wednesday.

Passenger traffic was marginally down from its pre-pandemic level (1.7%) but was more than double – up 115.4% – last year’s, data from the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe showed.

London's Heathrow Airport came second with 5.991 million passengers. The British hub saw a 526% annual rise in its traffic but was down 17.3% compared to 2019.

It was followed by Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport with 5.45 million passengers this June and Amsterdam's Schiphol with 5.23 million.

Antalya Airport in the Turkish Mediterranean resort city was the eighth-busiest European airport last month with 3.91 million passengers.

In the first half of this year, total passenger traffic in the European airport network jumped 247% year-on-year or 660 million, data showed.

"The fact that volumes across the continent still remained ‑28.3% below pre-pandemic levels for the first half of the year should not eclipse the sheer and unprecedented unleashing of pent-up demand that has occurred since March," said Olivier Jankovec, ACI Europe’s director general.