Simple Flying
Victoria Agronsky
10 Feb 2026
London Heathrow Airport is widely recognized as Europe’s busiest airport, and it has held the title for decades. In 2025, it narrowly beat iGA Istanbul Airport by the slimmest of margins, serving 84.48 million passengers compared with Istanbul’s 84.44 million, according to ACI Europe data. However, with traffic growth stalling in London and, in contrast, robust increases continuing in Istanbul, aviation insiders now expect Heathrow to lose the crown in 2026.
The gap between Heathrow and Istanbul is vanishing fast. Heathrow’s growth has been modest, in part because it is already operating at or near capacity and constrained by infrastructure limits. Meanwhile, Istanbul’s mega-hub is still expanding, capitalizing on geographic advantage and strong connectivity to markets across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. What once seemed an unlikely upset now looks inevitable: the King of European skies may soon be dethroned by the Sultan at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.
