Ryanair

Ryanair delivered a petition signed by 1.1 million EU passengers to the European Commission on Wednesday, demanding overflights be protected from air traffic control (ATC) strikes, particularly in France, to help avoid travel disruption. 

Day 434 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Türkiye's mega airport Istanbul was the busiest one in Europe, with an average of 1,263 daily flights in March, according to EUROCONTROL.

Sabiha Gökçen, also in Istanbul, ranked 17th on the list with an average of 549 daily flights.

Istanbul Airport was followed by Heathrow with 1,190 flights and Charles de Gaulle in Paris with 1,135 flights.

A thorough inspection of a passenger plane that landed at Athens airport earlier Sunday has turned up no explosives, Greek media report.

The plane, a Boeing 737, was on a scheduled route from Katowince, Poland to Athens and reportedly carried more than 150 passenger. It is operated by Buzz Air, a Polish subsidiary of Ryanair's.

A Ryanair flight from Katowice, Poland has landed safely in Athens, after a call warning there was a bomb on board.

The flight, FR 6385, landed at 5.40 pm local time (1540 GMT) at Athens International Airport, more than two hours after its scheduled arrival time of 3.25 pm. It departed Katowice at 2.14 pm local (1314 GMT) instead of its original departure time of 12.05 pm (1105 GMT).

Turkish Airlines carried a total of 71.8 million passengers in 2022, with the international passenger tally rising nearly 6 percent.

Last year, the carrier served 46.3 million international passengers, and the load factor on the international routes was 80.2 percent, Turkish Airlines said in a filing with Borsa Istanbul.

Istanbul's mega airport was the busiest in Europe last year, according to the latest data from Eurocontrol.

It was again a very close race for the top spot, with İGA Istanbul narrowly finishing the year on top with 1,156 daily movements. Amsterdam Schiphol takes the second spot with 1,140 daily flights, down 18 percent from 2019, Eurocontrol said in a report.

The airport in the province of Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, will be expanded to serve more passengers, while Russian tour operators plan to use the airport for connecting flights to third countries in winter.

German national carrier Lufthansa said Wednesday it was scrapping another 2,000 flights this summer because of staff shortages, adding to a chaotic travel season as the industry attempts to bounce back from the pandemic.

The cancellations between now and the end of August will affect Lufthansa's hubs in Munich and Frankfurt, a company spokesman told AFP.

Istanbul Airport was the busiest airport in Europe in May by traffic volume as it served a total of 5.7 million passengers, according to data from the Airports Council International (ACI).

London Heathrow, which welcomed 5.34 million travelers, ranked second, followed by Paris's Charles de Gaulle at 5.22 million passengers.