The three European cities overcrowded with tourists!

Outside Venice's Santa Lucia train station this summer, officers armed with QR scanners stopped visitors to verify they had paid a day-tripper fee designed to curb overtourism. Just miles away, construction crews were busy expanding Marco Polo Airport, which will eventually serve 20 million passengers annually — up from 11.6 million .

Venice is hardly alone in this paradox. Across Europe, airports are expanding to meet growing travel demand, even as the cities they serve struggle to contain the flood of visitors through tourist taxes, short-term rental bans, and carbon-reduction initiatives. The contradiction exposes a fundamental clash between local governments desperate to protect residents' quality of life and national authorities eager to capture aviation revenue .

In Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport is building a 592,000-square-foot boarding gate area set to open in 2027. Athens International Airport is expanding capacity from 26 million to 40 million passengers a year — though the airport recently cancelled its existing expansion tender and shifted to a more gradual strategy after traffic grew faster than anticipated . And in Barcelona, where a new commissioner for sustainable tourism is rolling out policies to diminish tourists' impact on residential life, plans to expand El Prat Airport prompted opponents to organize a demonstration on September 20 .

"It definitely is a contradiction," said Alex Chapman, head of economic and environmental policy at the New Economics Foundation, a progressive British think tank in London. "There are cases like Barcelona where you have got a population that is almost on the streets in revolt at what they perceive to be unsustainable and unfair tourist-industry practices. To be proposing another huge expansion of the airport alongside that is just really hard to reconcile" .

The clashing efforts stem from competing authorities. In general, national governments in Europe oversee airports, while the areas most affected by overtourism — housing, sanitation, public spaces — fall under municipal or regional control. As citizens have protested tourism's impact, local governments have been obligated to respond. But their toolkit is limited .

"The most they can do is reduce the number of accommodations or impose a tourist tax," said Tolo Deyá, dean of the tourism school at the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain. "Whereas controlling or reducing the number of flights is in the hands of the central government" .

For central governments, Deyá added, "airports are a very important source of revenue." While more flight connections can boost economies, Chapman noted, "you are also bringing a lot of other social costs," such as housing shortages and pollution .

In an effort to reduce noise and other disruptions for residents near Amsterdam's airport, the Dutch government in 2025 capped Schiphol flights at 478,000 annually, but that cap was overturned in court. On September 9, a new cap allowing gradual increases to 500,000 flights — so long as noise and environmental restrictions are upheld — received preliminary approval from the Dutch Council of State .

According to Stefan Donker, a Schiphol spokesperson, the additions underway are not intended to increase flights but rather to meet the reality of growing passenger numbers, which have risen from 42 million to 70 million over the past 20 years. For many airport management companies, expansion projects enable modernisations such as updated baggage handling systems, improved energy efficiency, and new technologies like Europe's entry-exit system. But the companies also say their obligation is to adapt to travel demand, not regulate it .

Aena, the public-private company managing Spain's major airports, is planning expansions not only in Barcelona but also in Madrid, Malaga, and Bilbao. "Airports, like any infrastructure, cannot be the controller of demand," said Aena president Maurici Lucena .

Experts warn that airport growth can erode the effectiveness of local efforts to restrain overtourism and can even enable more tourists to come. "When you look at Mallorca, for example, the number of hotel beds has been frozen for many years, and vacation rentals are strictly controlled," Deyá said. "But the number of arrivals keeps going up" .

Mallorca is one of the hot spots of tension. Crowded public spaces, poor tourist behaviour, and a lack of affordable housing have prompted protests for three successive summers — one in July drew 25,000 people to the streets of Palma. At the same time, 2024 and 2025 saw record passenger numbers arrive at the island's airport .
Palma Mallorca, a popular beach city in West Mediterranean sea. Collected photo.
The paradox is playing out across the continent. In France, the state and Groupe ADP agreed on an €8.2 billion investment programme for Paris airports over 2027–2034, even as the country restricts certain domestic flights where rail alternatives exist . In Germany, Frankfurt Airport handled 6.3 million passengers in August 2026, with growth across Fraport's global network . European airport passenger traffic overall rose 2.6 percent in the first half of 2026, though growth slowed markedly in the second quarter due to geopolitical tensions and higher fuel prices. 

(NYT)