European airlines: top 12 LCCs further grew their passenger lead versus non-LCCs in 2025

Europe's top 12 low cost airline brands collectively carried 598 million passengers in 2025, which was a year-on-year increase of 6%.

Non-LCCs carried 416 million passengers - an increase of less than 3%.

The top dozen LCCs extended their lead over the top 12 non-LCCs to 182 million passengers in 2025, from 158 million passengers in 2024.

Moreover, the leading LCCs carried 24% more passengers in 2025 than in 2019, while the non-LCCs were still 4% below their collective 2019 traffic.

Ryanair, Europe's biggest LCC and biggest airline overall by passenger numbers in 2025, had 117% more passengers than the number two LCC - easyJet - and almost three times the traffic of Turkish Airlines, which is Europe's biggest non-LCC brand.

This report ranks the top 12 LCC and non-LCC airline brands in Europe by passenger numbers in 2025.