# Scheduled flights: passengers transported on international flight routes

A map of a former edition of the Atlas of Switzerland, the national atlas published by ETH Zurich. It opens only in the desktop atlas (version 4) for Windows and macOS, not in the web atlas; see the links below.

- Map: https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/theme/scheduled-flights-passengers-transported-on-international-flight-routes/
- Short title: Scheduled flights: passengers per flight route
- Map id: 509
- Categories: Global Switzerland › Traffic and Communication › Air traffic
- Keywords: Air traffic, Transport
- Published: 2017-07-27
- Last revised: 2021-11-09
- Content language: English
- Other languages: [Deutsch](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/de/thema/linienfluege-transportierte-passagiere-auf-internationalen-flugstrecken.md), [Français](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/fr/theme/vols-de-ligne-passagers-transportes-sur-les-routes-internationales.md), [Italiano](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/it/tema/voli-di-linea-passeggeri-trasportati-sulle-tratte-internazionali.md)

## Description

Scheduled and charter flights are by far the most important area of civil aviation in terms of passenger traffic and the volume of freight transported. In 2019, Swiss airports recorded a total of 58.6 million passengers (local and transfer passengers) on scheduled and charter flights. While the number of flight movements for scheduled and charter flights has declined by 13% since 2000, the passenger volumes have increased by around 70%. The reasons for these contrary developments are larger planes and higher seat load factors. The growth is solely attributable to scheduled flights (+88%); on the other hand, the passenger volumes of charter flights have fallen very sharply from around 3.5 million to 0.5 million (-86%).
The passenger volumes for the three Swiss international airports, which form the main proportion, have developed in disparate ways between 2000 and 2019. In Zurich, the figures rose at a high level by 41% from 22.5 million to 31.5 million, while they doubled in Geneva (from 7.7 million to 17.8 million) and in Basel-Mulhouse (from 3.7 million to 9.1 million).

Atlanta/Hartsfield-Jackson recorded the most flight passengers (110.5 million) among the international airports in 2019. The next-ranked airports were Beijing/Capital with 100 million, Los Angeles/Intl. with 88.1 million, Dubai/Intl. with 86.4 million and Tokyo/Haneda with some 85.5 million passengers.
In Europe, London/Heathrow is still the busiest airport, with around 80.9 million passengers. Paris/Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam and Frankfurt came next with over 70 million flight guests each.

The most important Swiss travel destinations in 2016 were mainly in Europe. From Zurich, the largest number of passengers flying on scheduled and charter flights went to London/Heathrow (1.18 million) and Berlin/Tegel (1.163 million). Occupying third and fourth place are Amsterdam (0.974 million) and Vienna (0.937 million), followed by Düsseldorf (0.748 million.). For Geneva Airport, London/Heathrow also took top place with 1.063 million passengers. This is followed by London/Gatwick (0.827 million), another British airport, meaning more passengers travel to London from Geneva than from Zurich. Paris/Charles de Gaulle (0.725 million) is only placed third in the travel destinations. The third international airport Basel-Mulhouse does not achieve this level of figures; most passengers are recorded as travelling to Amsterdam (0.447 million) and Barcelona (0.355 million).

## Sources

- FSO (2021): [Zivilluftfahrt im Jahr 2020: Linien- und Charterverkehr sowie General Aviation](https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/mobilitaet-verkehr.html)
- Wikipedia contributors (2021): [Liste der größten Flughäfen nach Passagieraufkommen](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_gr%C3%B6%C3%9Ften_Flugh%C3%A4fen_nach_Passagieraufkommen)

## Data sources

- Atlas of Switzerland (2021): [Fluglinien](http://www.atlasderschweiz.ch/)
- FOCA (2008): Passagiere 85 07
- FOCA (2017): Passagiere 2008 2016
- FOCA (2021): Standard Zeitreiheauswertung für die Jahren 2000 bis 2020
- Patokallio (2014): [OpenFlights](http://openflights.org/)
- Wikipedia contributors (2017): [List of busiest airports by passenger traffic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic). In: Wikipedia

## Data owners

- [Atlas of Switzerland (AoS)](http://www.atlasderschweiz.ch/)
- [Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA)](http://www.bazl.admin.ch)
- [Great Circle Mapper](http://www.gcmap.com/)
- [OpenFlights](http://openflights.org/)

## Citation

The terms of use ask to name the Atlas of Switzerland and the data owners, and to keep the source references in exports, screenshots and embeds. Cite the map as:

> Atlas of Switzerland (2021): Scheduled flights: passengers transported on international flight routes. ETH Zürich. Map data © AoS, FOCA, Great Circle Mapper, OpenFlights. https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/theme/scheduled-flights-passengers-transported-on-international-flight-routes/

## Links

- Map page, with the description and sources and a button that opens the map in the desktop atlas: https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/theme/scheduled-flights-passengers-transported-on-international-flight-routes/
- Open the map in the desktop atlas (version 4), where it is installed: adsglobe://map/509
- Download of the desktop atlas (version 4) for Windows and macOS: https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/ads4-download/

## Related maps

- [Airmail transported on international flight routes](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/theme/airmail-transported-on-international-flight-routes.md) (id 514, former edition, desktop atlas only)
- [Flight movements on international routes](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/theme/flight-movements-on-international-routes.md) (id 512, former edition, desktop atlas only)

For the use and citation of maps and data, see the [terms of use](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/terms-of-use/).