Istanbul Airport overtook London Heathrow as Europe’s busiest airport in July 2026, handling 8.15 million passengers against Heathrow’s 7.859 million. The Turkish hub moved ahead by about 289,000 travellers during the peak summer month, while traffic at Heathrow remained below Istanbul’s total.
Turkey’s transport authorities linked the result to stronger international demand and transfer traffic at Istanbul, which continues to build its position as a major connecting hub between Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The airport’s July traffic included 1.816 million domestic passengers and 6.33 million international passengers, alongside 50,748 aircraft movements.
Heathrow’s July total was 1.5% lower than a year earlier, while Istanbul’s traffic rose 2.3% year on year. Turkish officials also highlighted a European daily passenger record at Istanbul Airport of 289,732 travellers on 9 August.