Basel gains flydubai as latest new airline in 2024; easyJet top carrier; Palma top destination
EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is the third busiest of six Swiss airports with passenger flights. It ended 2023 with just over eight million passengers the third-best year on record but still 11% lower than in 2019. However, the traffic recovery is improving considerably based on S24 data.
Gains flydubai and other new carriers in 2024
On 2 August 2024, Basel welcomed the first flydubai flights, providing onward connectivity to numerous destinations via Dubai DXB, including on Emirates. It is the first time that Basel has been linked to a Middle East hub, enabling additional connectivity.
The kilometre route operates 4-weekly on the Boeing 737 MAX 8. It is the carrier’s new longest European service and one of 38 European airports to see its frames this summer. According to Cirium data, Basel-Dubai DWC had limited numbers of Condor flights, which were P2P-driven, between 2017 and 2019.
flydubai is the latest new airline to join Basel’s ranks. Other brand-new additions in 2024 include Air Dolomiti (2024) and Norwegian (2024). However, various airlines no longer serve the airport, including Air Albania (exited in 2022), Brussels Airlines (2021), Cyprus Airways (2023), Iberia (2020), Onur Air (2020; defunct), TAP Air Portugal (2019) and TUIfly Deutschland (2020).
easyJet is by far the largest airline
According to Cirium data, LCC has 59% of Basel’s available seats in Q3 2024. It is about 10 times larger than Wizz Air, number two, a position held by TUI Fly Deutschland in 2019. Basel is easyJet’s 10th busiest airport out of 146 served in these three months.
easyJet has 69 Basel routes, with Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Barcelona, Pristina and Budapest being its top five. In November, easyJet will resume flights to London LTN and Seville, both last served in 2020.
Basel’s average flight covers 1,110 kilometres. However, it has two airlines whose only routes from the airport exceed the 4,800-kilometre cut-off point to be long-haul. Air Transat operates summer seasonally to Montreal (2-weekly in August on the A321LR), while there is now also flydubai.
Palma replaces Amsterdam as the number one destination
The data source used may directly influence the results, based on the schedules airlines have submitted. When all airlines are combined, Cirium data indicates that Basel has scheduled flights to 95 destinations in Q3 2024. Given the season, it is not surprising that Palma has the most capacity, although London would be first at the city level because LHR, LGW and STN are all served.
Basel has 30-weekly Palma flights in August by easyJet (22), Eurowings (5) and Condor (3). Interestingly, Amsterdam was the top destination by seats last year, although it remains number one by flights, heavily influenced by KLM’s RJ use.
Comparing Q3 2024 to 2023 shows that 11 destinations are no longer served from Basel: Banja Luka, Belgrade, Kukës, Marseille, Mykonos, Nis, Ohrid, Skopje, Tel Aviv, Tirana and Tuzla. However, 10 have been added: Chania, Dubai, Enfidha, Funchal, London STN, Malta, Oslo, Rabat, Rijeka and Salerno.
