Europe had the most flights in history last week, new data reveals
September 4, 2025
European air traffic reached an all-time high last week, with EUROCONTROL confirming the busiest seven-day period ever recorded across the continent.
Between 25 and 31 August, the network handled a total of 250,291 flights, averaging 35,756 per day.
The figure represents a 0.7% increase on the previous week and stands 4% higher than the same period in 2024.
‘Highest total weekly traffic ever recorded across the European aviation network’
Notably, it was also 1% up versus 2019 levels.
EUROCONTROL described the figures as a “new record” and “the highest total weekly traffic ever recorded across the European aviation network”.
The overall picture shows year-to-date traffic up 3.9%, with en-route air traffic flow management (ATFM) delay levels 26% better than in 2024, thanks to strong delivery by most air navigation service providers across southeast and central Europe, Italy and Switzerland.
Weather delays hit punctuality
The surge in flights coincided with a spell of convective weather that disrupted large parts of Europe, pushing average ATFM delays to 4.3 minutes per flight – up 31% compared with the prior week.
Arrival punctuality dropped to 71%, 2.8 percentage points lower than the previous week.
However, EUROCONTROL pointed out that weather-related impacts were still 3.1% better than last year, indicating growing resilience within the network.
Bad weather was the main contributor to delays, with 63,028 flights – one in four – subject to ATFM restrictions.
France accounted for 29% of all network delays, largely due to staffing shortages and adverse conditions, while Greece contributed 12% and Spain 10%, reflecting a mix of capacity issues, high demand and weather-related disruption.
Marseille Area Control Centre (ACC) alone generated 140,000 delay minutes by not meeting its target capacity levels.
Industrial action in Serbia also dented performance, with Beograd ACC responsible for a further 41,000 minutes of delay.
UK aviation sector enjoys strong demand
The EUROCONTROL figures follow data from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which showed a record 81 million passengers passing through the country’s airports between April and June 2025.
This is the highest quarterly figure on record for passenger traffic.
Passenger traffic during the first six months of the year totalled 141 million, putting the industry on course for a record-breaking summer and signalling a full return to – and in many cases beyond – pre-pandemic (2019) demand levels.
Operational performance also showed marked improvement, with airline punctuality reaching its strongest level in recent years.
According to the CAA 75% of flights are currently departing on time, an 8 percentage point increase when compared with 2024. April was a standout month with 82% of services operating to schedule.
While the UK’s primary gateway, London Heathrow, welcomed an unprecedented 39.9 million passengers in the first half of 2025, the CAA’s report also highlighted regional resilience, with northern airports seeing impressive gains.
Collectively, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds Bradford welcomed three-quarters of a million additional passengers compared with the same period last year.
