Traffic figures for 2024: 14.83 million passengers traveled through Hamburg Airport

Strong recovery in air traffic at Hamburg Airport / Recovery rate is 86 per cent compared to 2019 / Flight load factor reaches record levels

06.01.2025

Hamburg Airport can look back on a successful 2024. With around 14.83 million passengers, the airport significantly exceeded original expectations. This represents an increase of 9 per cent compared to the previous year (2023: 13.6 million passengers). The recovery rate compared to the pre-corona year 2019 rose to 86 per cent. This development clearly shows how strongly air traffic at Hamburg Airport has recovered. For the coming year, Hamburg Airport plans to just about maintain the level achieved.

‘2024 was a good year for Hamburg Airport. North Germans are travelling again - and very much so! Our expectations were exceeded,’ says Christian Kunsch, CEO of Hamburg Airport. ‘We have particularly strong demand for private travel within Europe. At times, we had a recovery rate of over 100 per cent compared to 2019. Business travel, on the other hand, is levelling off at around 20 per cent of passenger volume - this will be the new normal.’ Berit Schmitz, Managing Director at Hamburg Airport, adds: ‘This year, we have succeeded in ensuring smooth operations even on particularly busy days. We have achieved this thanks to the high level of commitment shown by the airport team together with our partners. At the same time, we have invested in comfort and service, added many new features to the catering and shop facilities and modernised the travel market.’

Strong demand and high capacity utilisation

With around 127.000 take-offs and landings, the absolute number of flight movements in 2024 increased by around 5.5 per cent compared to the previous year (2023: 120,300 take-offs and landings; 2019: around 155,200 take-offs and landings). The positive development in passenger numbers to 14.83 million passengers was driven by several factors: First and foremost was the strong demand for private travel. At the same time, the trend towards long-haul destinations grew, which was noticeable not only in the private segment but also in business travel. Particularly striking was the record load factor for commercial flights, which stood at 81% for the year as a whole (2019: 77.8%). This is the highest average load factor ever recorded at Hamburg Airport. In scheduled and tourist traffic, the average number of passengers per flight rose to 137 which is around 10 passengers more than in the pre-corona year 2019.

‘For us as an airport, the high load factor means that more and more passengers are coming through the terminal at once - and we have to ensure an ever better passenger flow,’ explains Christian Kunsch. He names one building block for this year's success: ‘We have further simplified baggage check-in at the Self Bag Drop machines and speeded it up by 50 per cent. Thanks to the new hand scanners, it takes less than 50 seconds for a suitcase with a printed baggage label to be dispatched.’ The number of baggage items checked in via Self Bag Drop has increased by 30 per cent compared to the previous year. One in three suitcases is now checked in at the machine.

Autumn holidays as the highlight: stress test passed

With over 843,000 passengers, the 2024 autumn holidays saw the strongest demand since the coronavirus pandemic. On 18 October 2024, the mark of 60,000 arriving and departing passengers per day was broken again for the first time. At peak times during the autumn holidays, more than 3,000 passengers per hour passed through the passenger security check at Hamburg Airport - 99 percent of them passed through the waiting area and security check in under 20 minutes. Despite full terminals, the stress test was passed.

Wide range of airlines in the north 

In contrast to other airports, Hamburg has always offered a very broad airline mix: Around 55 airlines fly from Hamburg, and last summer the airlines flew to around 120 direct summer destinations. In winter, more and more seasonal destinations are added, so that around 125 direct destinations were served from Hamburg throughout the year. A highlight in 2024 was the launch of the direct flight to Doha by Qatar Airways. Northern Germans can reach around 170 destinations via the airline’s hub - additional options that have been very well received by passengers.

Outlook 2025

The flight schedules for summer 2025 are currently being finalised by the airlines. Hamburg Airport expects the choice of carriers to be very broad again in 2025. ‘We are currently assuming that we will just about maintain the current level in terms of both supply and demand in the coming year,’ says Christian Kunsch. ‘The focus is on developing the existing infrastructure in line with demand so that we can continue to absorb strong peaks in a stable manner.’

Hamburg Airport continues to invest in security, comfort and services for passengers. This includes a further 5 million euros for the expansion of security facilities and the new construction of parts of the baggage handling system. In addition, automatic smart gates for improved passenger control at the security checkpoint will be put into operation. Further refurbishment of sanitary facilities and the gradual replacement of a total of 26 lifts are also planned.