Going to Europe This Summer? Brace for Flight Delays

LONDON—Last summer, flying in Europe was a nightmare. This year, at least in terms of delays, it’s even worse. 

Passengers traveling across the region have so far experienced more delayed flights this summer than a year ago, when the flying season was marred by long lines, lost baggage and regular cancellations as a rebound in demand overwhelmed airports.

This summer airlines and airports are wrestling with an array of challenges. A shortage of air-traffic controllers has impacted the number of flights that can be handled during the day. Wildfires in some of Europe’s top tourist destinations have prompted airlines to divert planes to repatriate vacationers. The war in Ukraine has closed off airspace previously used regularly, and workers, including cabin crew and pilots, are striking across the region.

More than a third of flights were delayed by 15 minutes or more between May 1 and Aug. 1 at Europe’s 50 biggest airports, according to data compiled by FlightAware, a flight-tracking service. That compares with a delay rate of about 29% in the same period last year and almost 24% in 2019.

“This summer will be difficult,” said Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline by passenger numbers, on a call with investors last month. Air-traffic control shortages and strikes have been particularly frustrating, he said.

The air-travel challenges in Europe come as more American tourists opt to visit the region this summer.

Among European airports, Lisbon topped the list with close to half of all flights recorded as delayed. Rounding out the top five most affected airports were London Gatwick, Athens, Nice in southern France and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Delays have worsened at several of the region’s biggest hubs, including London Heathrow and Frankfurt Airport, which were among the worst hit by disruption last year. Punctuality has improved, though, at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

One silver lining in Europe this summer is fewer cancellations. In the May-to-August period, 0.9% of all flights were scrapped, compared with 1.4% in the same months last year, FlightAware data shows.

Flight delays at the 50 biggest U.S. airports also rose during the May-to-August period, though the increase—up to about 26% of all flights from around 24% last year, according to FlightAware data—isn’t as steep as in Europe.

The causes of delays this summer “are issues that are outside the remits of airport operators,” said Olivier Jankovec, director general of Airports Council International Europe, a trade body. He added that airports had broadly succeeded in staffing up in areas they control, like security, in an effort to avoid a repeat of last year’s disruption. 

Staffing was a major issue last summer, particularly in positions like baggage handling. After shedding workers during the pandemic, airlines and airports couldn’t get them all back. 

This year, the aviation industry has had more time to prepare but is much busier. The average number of daily flights across Europe has reached more than 27,000 this year, up 12% versus 2022, according to Eurocontrol, the continent’s air-traffic agency.

“We have the resources that are necessary to fly, but the problem is that we are in a very tough environment,” Luis Gallego, chief executive officer of

The disruption has led to an increase in costs of about 140 million euros, or about $154 million, compared with last year, mostly to cover rebooking and compensation expenses, Gallego said.

Audrey Eager was flying with Aer Lingus—IAG’s Irish carrier—from Dublin Airport this month when her flight was delayed for two hours. Over the cabin intercom, her pilot attributed the holdup to weather and to air-traffic control delays, which went on long enough to require a change in crew. Her flight back from London Gatwick was also delayed two hours. 

“There were no announcements, no update on the screens, not even to say it was delayed,” Eager said. “Their app wasn’t much better.”

Some of the disruption has been out of the industry’s hands. In Greece, operations have been disrupted by wildfires that have raged across two of the country’s most popular tourist destinations—Rhodes and Corfu. 

Airlines and tour operators have canceled flights to the country. They have also added repatriation flights to help evacuate thousands of stranded vacationers. 

Elsewhere in recent weeks, firefighters battled a wildfire close to Nice International Airport, while Sicily temporarily shut down Palermo’s Falcone Borsellino Airport as flames reached its perimeter.

A shortage of air-traffic controllers, tasked with monitoring flights and processing landings and takeoffs, has reduced the number of flights that can be managed at certain times. Aircraft ready to depart have been left waiting on runways, while flights ready to land have been kept in holding patterns while they wait for a controller to come back from mandatory breaks.

Many of these workers left the industry during the pandemic, and authorities have struggled to recruit and train enough staff to properly manage airspace in places such as Germany, Greece and the U.K.

In France, air-traffic controllers have also repeatedly gone on strike, joining a wider wave of worker unrest over pay that has seen luggage handlers, security staff and cabin crew either stage walkouts or set dates for industrial action.

Discount carrier EasyJet earlier this month scrapped 1,700 flights, most scheduled to depart from Gatwick Airport, citing “unprecedented air-traffic control delays.” Gatwick itself has limited the number of flights operating at peak times to offset disruption, the airport said.

Exacerbating the situation is Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has led to congestion in the skies above Germany and the Balkans. Military flyovers close to the border of Ukraine have also periodically blocked out sections of the airspace. 

“We’ve seen reduced airspace being available for commercial aviation, particularly in Eastern Europe,” EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said on a recent call with reporters. “A lot of the flights that previously were operating over Russian airspace, Ukraine airspace have moved.”

Write to Nuha Dolby at [email protected] and Benjamin Katz at [email protected]