That is considerably up from just over 33,000 daily flights one month ago – with flight volumes 4% higher than last year, and continuing to hover around a full global recovery (97% of 2019), although many countries and sectors of the network are experiencing air traffic well above 2019 levels.
As of Sunday 7 July 5,286,686 total flights had been managed across the network, 6% more than 2023.
In terms of traffic peaks, the highest of 2024 remains Friday 14 June, with 35,710 flights. But Week 27’s Friday, the 5th of July, saw 35,527 flights, the second highest of the year. To put that into perspective, both are considerably above the 2023 high of 34,637 flights recorded on Friday 7 July 2023 – but some way off the all-time network record of 37,228 flights that occurred on Friday 28 June 2019.
As we enter peak-summer, the two top 10 airports expanding the most are both seasonal, with network no.8 Antalya recording 3% week-on-week growth (1,040 daily flights), a growth rate only exceeded by 10th busiest Palma de Mallorca, up 4% with 999 daily flights.
At the top, Paris CDG and Amsterdam Schiphol swapped places with CDG moving into second with 1,412 daily flights, just 5 daily flights more than AMS.
Most top 10 airlines added flights, led by no.2 easyJet Group which saw 5% week-on-week growth with 1,829 daily flights. Most are also flying more than this time last year – but considerable differences remain in comparison to pre-pandemic levels, ranging from Lufthansa Group (21% fewer flights, currently 4th with 1,248 daily flights) or SAS Group (20% fewer, 10th and 632 daily flights) to 37% more flights (both no.1 Ryanair Group, 3,596 daily flights, and no.7 Wizz Air Group, 909 daily flights).
From a State perspective, Greece once more continues to grow the most, with up to 2,538 daily flights recorded in Week 27, a 5% week-on-week increase. Greece is also, of all the 10 busiest States, recording the greatest growth compared to pre-pandemic, with 17% more flights than 2019.
Overall traffic increases across all categories meant a busier network, but network ATFM delays improved by 33% compared to Week 26 thanks to better network weather; this also helped arrival punctuality bounce back to 64% (whereas in Week 26 this had fallen to 58%).